#Thank You Mayor Pete

[originalleftist]

This is what happens when you elect Democrats- no talking points lifted from the Third Reich, no constant whining and lying on Xitter, no coup attempts.

Just steady, competent governance that no, may not fix everything all at once, but does keep the country running while making life meaningfully and measurably better for the working class.

[angsty-art-ist]

part 2 of the NPMD Monster High AU! seriously thank you guys for all the love on part 1, it means a lot that you like my silly hyperfixation crossover :]

a little lore note: in this AU, monsters can use magic to blend in with humans during the day, sort of like in the g3 cartoon. Hatchetfield is kind of split into the normie side and smaller monster side. the monster part of town is magically warded to make humans want to leave quickly, and monsters don’t tend to cross over into the human areas (with the exception of adults with normie jobs, like Mayor Lauter and most of the adult HF cast). Hatchetfield High is a “exclusive private school” in the monster part of town, and the normie teens, like Grace and Max, go to Sycamore.

why are Grace and Max humans if this is a monster AU, you ask? don’t worry, i have plans for them :)

Steph:

she’s a vampire because… well because she’s rich. you’ve heard of old money? these Lauters are ancient money

i had a hard time with her outfit because my main references were Draculaura and Elissabat, who are both very dressy, but i wanted to stay true to Steph’s casual grungy style… and then i remembered The Lost Boys were THEE original grunge vampires, so i mashed David and Paul’s jackets together and gave her a Santa Carla tee as a shout-out

the chains and plaid pattern tie back to Pete’s design, like the plaid of her flannel and his bow tie in the show <3

her father isn’t technically actually a king, but runs Hatchetfield’s monster community like he is one. a close encounter with a band of monster hunters the better part of a century ago forced the monsters into hiding under his command, and Steph’s mother ended up staked. Solomon hasn’t been the same since…

Max:

his design is simpler than the others, but that’s for a reason :) the mansters usually have more boring outfits than the ghouls, so it’s not that out of place for Monster High, right? i plan to make a few more ‘doll lines’ for this au- i’m thinking Dawn of the Dance next ;)

his jacket is based on the G1 varsity jackets that Heath Burns and Slo Mo had in their first waves, but with Max’s iconic blue. i got rid of the Hatchetfield ‘H’ since he goes to Sycamore with the other normies in this AU. go Timberwolves, i guess?

his striped shirt is based on Freddy Krueger’s iconic sweater, because Max in the musical seems to take a lot of cues from Freddy; coming back from the dead to get revenge on his killers, vulgar one-liners, gruesome kills, and even a parody of the Freddy rhyme painted on the set background. one, two, Jäger’s coming for you…

side note but i had a really hard time getting Will’s likeness in this pseudo-MH style. i think he ended up a bit too Bruce Campbell-y. maybe it’s the chin.

Grace:

sorry, Grace, i’m changing your name a bit. if you need a refresher on the G1 MH lore; Van Hellscream is the Monster High expy of Van Helsing. his niece Lilith appears in the Ghouls Rule movie, but i’m stretching out the timeline a bit so let’s say Lilith is Grace’s aunt or something. Chasity is her maiden name, which the family goes by because “Hellscream doesn’t sound very Christian”

these days, the Van Hellscream’s monster-hunting legacy is more of a family legend than history, and her parents don’t even believe that monsters exist… but Grace knows that something unholy is going on at that “private school”. she may not have Great-Uncle Abraham’s arsenal, but she has the power of God and years of repressed rage on her side

design wise she changed the least from her canon outfit. she’s covered in monster-killing weapons- crosses, stakes, silver bullets, and the flowers on her blouse and jeans are alliums, aka garlic flowers- which, fun fact, were originally thought to be what repelled vampires, rather than garlic bulbs!

her blouse is based on Nancy’s nightdress in Nightmare on Elm Street to match with Max’s Freddy stripes

[ranchstoryblog]

64 Dreams: A Look at Harvest Moon 64's Japanese Pre-Release Coverage

Fresh off the releases of the original Bokujou Monogatari in '96 and the GameBoy demake in '97, the series was starting to make a bit of a name for itself by 1998. The popularity of the GameBoy port in particular, partially credited by Yasuhiro Wada to the revived interest of the GameBoy as a platform thanks to Pokémon, led to some amount of anticipation for the follow-up.

At that time, a Japanese gaming magazine called The 64Dream, which was later renamed Nintendo Dream, was aimed exclusively at Nintendo 64 owners to give them the latest in information on upcoming and currently available games. Several issues over the course of a year would feature updates and information on Bokujou Monogatari 2. It would be a lot of work to translate everything, though we still might go over the really interesting bits some day, but, for now, we'll go over a brief summary of each issue's coverage up until release.

October, 1998

To start off the coverage of Bokumono 2, Yasuhiro Wada, Setsuko Miyakoshi, and Tomomi Yamatate are participating in a Q&A with the magazine's staff and introducing elements that are new from the SNES game like the camera, backpack, automatically leveling up tools, sheep, etc. Things to do during Winter are also referenced, like mining and the event to help out with Green Ranch, as well as it being a highly requested feature to continue playing after the ending. It also references the Goddess Fountain being the one from the previous game, which I hadn't really considered but if you think about the general layout of both maps it makes sense. The heart level system is also revealed to have a name the development staff used, the "Bakubaku system," which was implemented because sneaking a peek at their diaries wasn't the best thing to do. Since it's referencing a heartbeat, I guess if they localized that name it'd be something like "ba-dump system"?

There's a few tidbits that are completely different from the final game, like being able to carry bugs in your backpack, as well as an affection system for wild animals. Neither are in the release version, with wild animals being able to just be picked up freely without befriending them, and neither bugs or animals being willing to be stuffed into your bag. The calendar of festivals and other notable events is also a bit different, with no races or swimming events present at all, along with the Spirit Festival being on the 29th instead of the 27th.

There's also few interesting details among the artwork, like Harris being blonde and the baby's outfit being brown instead of blue. The artwork of the girls is also distinct here, with most of them not being featured in any other promotional material or guidebooks. Ran and Marie's artwork appeared in the 15th anniversary art book, but Karen, Popuri, and Elly were oddly absent. Rare stuff.

November, 1998

This month, the magazine's editors are getting to play for the first time. Most of the article is just them experiencing stuff that's new after the SNES game firsthand. Things like rotating the camera, having a bag, carrying multiple tools, tools leveling up with use, things like that. Oddly, Karen doesn't seem to appear in the demo, though the vineyard and other characters do. The article ends with some fan art of Karen and Pete at the vineyard. There's also some fan art of all the girls in the fan art section.

There isn't a lot here that's different from the final game this month, but there is a screenshot of the library with a completely different layout from the final game.

December, 1998

Wow, right off the bat there's lots of little art differences here. Mayor Thomas is blonde, Marie has blue hair like her grandma, and so does Kent! Though with that light of a shade, maybe Kent's is supposed to look shaved. The artwork for the town's map is also a little off, featuring a layout that's not present in the final game, and a few details that would go missing as well, like a tree outside the bakery. Of course, several new elements would be in the final game that are also missing from this artwork, like shop signs. I also appreciate all the little figures of characters wandering around the map.

The text doesn't look like anything new or distinct, but it does mention that there's now a racetrack. Horse races weren't mentioned at all in previous months, so maybe this was a late addition they finally felt safe confirming. It also mentions Duke being Jeff's uncle, which is something I tend to forget is mentioned in-game, as well as Doga's appearance being compared to Yoda, and... I can see it.

There's also a featured fan art this month at the end of the article featuring Ran and Pete sitting together. In the magazine's fan-art dedicated page, there's artwork of Popuri and Elly, too! Not to mention plenty of non-Bokumono fan art featuring characters from Wonder Project J2, Pokémon, and Ocarina of Time.

January, 1999

The article this month opens with lamenting that the game didn't release in December and will be delayed until February. Since we're pretty close to release now, it doesn't look like there's too many differences from the final game at this point. Of note, however, is that the animals all seem 500-1000 G cheaper. I guess they were still adjusting game balance. The crops listing doesn't include strawberries either, and a note that the seed prices might be different in the released game, but those are all correct.

The fan art this month is Pete with a bunch of farm animals, including a pig! I guess they'll have to wait until GBC3 and Magical Melody for that though. There's also a small figure on the left side, maybe holding a paintbrush? An artist's self-portrait, maybe?

February, 1999

Finally, it's release month! The game has been consistently voted one of the most anticipated titles by readers, and Yasuhiro Wada is here to answer their questions.

The first interesting question is about the Nintendo 64 Transfer Pak, which Wada says wasn't possible to implement transferring cows and such due to technical reasons and the N64 game's development coming later. However, if the game was popular enough to release a Bokujou Monogatari 3 on the N64, he'd like to implement GameBoy gimmicks. Next, he's asked about the baby, and mentions that it will have different reactions based on where you take it, and that it will gradually change with level of affection. When asked about improving crop varieties, Wada replies that it's a secret. Maybe referencing the unlocking of Strawberries after getting a greenhouse? The page ends with a variety of fan art.

On the next page, a fan asks if there are multiple endings. Wada responds that there's really only one, but there's a ranking system in place. He also mentions that you can transfer your save to a Controller Pak and take it to a friend's house and compare your rankings with them, which is something North American fans missed out on when the rankings page feature was removed, along with several other things. Next is a question about catching and keeping bugs, which contrary to the mention in the October '98 issue, he says that leaving them in nature is for the best. The last question on the page asks about the girls from the original game appearing, which Wada says a few do in some way, and you should try to find out. Also that the same Harvest Sprites return. There's also artwork of all the 64 girls in cute winter outfits!

The last page is just basic gameplay questions, like how much money you start with and how to sheer sheep, with Wada going on to mention that taking care of animals is important and that there's a funeral scene for them now. The page closes again with more fan art.

More interestingly, the little boxed area on pages 22 and 23 features "requests" and general comments from fans. For page 22, the first of which is for co-op, which Wada says was an idea he also had, but to please bear with it as it wasn't possible, and there is a lot of content for one player in the game. Next, he's asked for the animals to make noises and have footstep sounds, which he says they do make animal sounds (mooing, clucking, etc) now, but don't have footstep sounds. Then he's asked about implementing a motorcycle or truck! Wada emphatically responds that nature is best.

Page 23's requests start with being able to freely design the house, which Wada also wants to do, but there are at least more extensions this time. Next, a player wants the hot springs to return, which Wada says might appear in this game as the player progresses. Another player comments that they hate natural disasters like typhoons, but Wada says they will be returning in this game, albeit less frequently. Someone asks to be able to make cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, which Wada says sounds great. Someone asks about the Hoe transforming into a tractor after it reaches level 4, which Wada brushes off as "too much," someone asking to put an N64 in the house, which Wada says sounds nice, but there's too many things in there already, and lastly someone comparing Wada's appearance to Yabe-san from the comedy duo "Ninety-Nine," which Wada disagrees and laughs at.

And that's it! Shortly after this magazine hit shelves, the game would finally release. There were several months of coverage afterward, which we'll probably go over, but that'll be for another time. A big thank you to ozidual of Gaming Alexandria for allowing us to use their scans. You can check out their full magazine scans on Archive.org.

[onyx-plutos-moon]

Snippet of the fic I'm writing BECAUSE THE UNIVERSE WONT GIVE ME THE RESTVOD THE PLOT TO FINISG IT

Yes this is Spidey-Steph

Enjoy dumbass lautski

Lauters were called a lot of things. Stubborn. Vain. Egotistical. Greedy. Many of those were true, along with so many other things whispered at political events or in the school halls. Many of them were also total fabrications. "Look at Solomon and his daughter, they look so happy" was never a true statement. The two couldn't spend more than a minute alone together before being at eachothers throats.

One thing that was definitely true was Lauters being territorial. Solomon held his position at the Mayor with an iron grip, sabotaging anyone who even thought about running against him. The position was his and his alone. He'd held it for as long as anyone could remember. And Stephanie, well...

Steph didn't think she had that trait of her father's until she got close to Pete.

Pete, who spent a few hours a week tutoring her. Pete, who never made her feel stupid for needing academic assistance. Pete, who's smile lit up a room and who's nerdy rambles kept Steph enthralled for hours. Pete, who wasn't hers.

And sure, he wasn't specifically anyone else's. He was a person, no one could own him!

But Steph wanted him as hers. And she wanted to be his.

Her little fantasies about the two of them pissed her off so much. The idea of going out for coffee after a study session, holding hands as they walked downtown to Beanies made her sick. Thoughts of running her fingers through his hair, pushing out of his eyes, tucking it behind his ear, god forbid braiding it. The thoughts made her skin crawl with want. The need to wrap an arm around his waist and take him through the town like Spider-Man. The want him kiss him like the Spider-Man kiss in the movie.

Want for some fucking nerd.

But he wasn't just some fucking nerd. He was Peter, future valedictorian. Peter, the guy haunted by rumors of his micropenis (Steph didn't believe that one) or how he jacked off in the bathroom during an exam (that one was too funny for her not to believe). Peter, who let her take breaks from studying when the words stopped appearing on the pages properly. Who stood outside with her when she needed a break to vape. She always offered him a hit and every time he declined. Peter, who was so kind and sweet and caring and fucking perfect. And who wasn't fucking hers.

She wasn't sure when the want to protect him from harm (Max) became the want for him. Maybe when she got her first C plus in a class that wasn't shop. Maybe it was when she'd crawled through his window in the middle of the night, ready to come out to him (as Spider-Man) because she trusted him. Maybe it was earlier. The Pasquallis carpark? When she'd first asked for his help?

Not like it mattered. He was either not interested or socially stupid on a level that matched her academics.

They sat on Steph's bedroom floor, a pile of thrifted clothes between them. Steph was stitching a line of blue down the sleeve of a red hoodie they'd found earlier that day. Pete's focus was on the old canvas shoe he was painting, red and blue and black slowly taking over the dirty white of the shoe.

"Thanks again for helping with this shit, Pete."

"It's fine, honestly I do this a lot." She raised an eyebrow at him, urging him to continue. "Ruth and Richie are both into cosplay so every Halloween we make our costumes together."

Steph felt a twinge of jealous. It was stupid. Ruth and Richie were Pete's best friends, of course he'd do things like this with them. It's not like making a costume together was their thing anyway.

"That's so geeky- fuck-" The needle stabbed into the pad of her finger, just enough to draw blood. She glared at the small dot of red before shoving it in her mouth. Pete snorted. "Fuck off-"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You okay, Steph?" He gave her a soft smile. She knew he was just asking to make her feel better, she'd told him all about her insanely high pain tolerance. It was cute.

She nodded, giving him a smile. Or the best rendition of one she could give with a finger in her mouth.

"Good. Can't have a superhero die on me. Then I'd need to get radiation poisoning to get powers so I can avenge your death."

"You're such a fucking dork, Spankoffski." Steph paused and finally took in what the boy across from her was wearing. Summer was slowly approaching, it was getting warmer, and this nerd was still in his slacks and a button up. How was he not dying from the heat? "... yknow you can dress down when we hang out, right?"

"You sure? Won't you miss the bowt-"

"Yeah I don't want my sidekick, like, dying because he got too hot."

The room was dead silent for a few moments. Pete wouldn't meet her eyes, spinning the pen across his fingers. It was a nervous habit of his. She'd seen him do it when he was stuck on his English essays.

God, she just fucked this all up. Pete probably owned his outfit in fabrics appropriate for any weather condition. His pants were probably linen, same with his shirt. Fuck, he was so nerdy he probably had ties in different fabrics for each season.

"Sorry, you don't have t-"

"- You sure it's okay if I dress down?" The pen dropped from his hand as the last word left his mouth. "I- I have something on under my shirt and-"

"You could start stripping and it'd be fine." Steph said without thinking. She honestly wouldn't mind if he undressed in front of her. In her room. But she'd mind it if things didn't get more than platonic. Besides, that probably wasn't the best thing to calm Pete's nerves about unbuttoning his shirt in front of her.

But he laughed. He heard her stupid comment and laughed. Pale fingers pulled the edge of the bowtie and it fell open (because of course he tied them every morning. That's such a Pete thing to do). He moved to undo the buttons and Steph watched, mesmerized. She was stitching blind, barely avoiding stabbing herself again as she watches Pete unbutton his shirt.

After the third button, the collar of a tan undershirt came into view. It sat tight across his chest. How often did Pete work out? How did he have time when he was tutoring her?

Halfway down the shirt she realized it wasn't a singlet or anything. It was a binder. No wonder he'd been nervous. His stomach was soft, he was paler under his shirt than Steph has assumed. Not that she imagined him shirtless a lot (okay, she did).

"... Steph..?"

Fuck she was staring.

She snapped her eyes down towards the needle in her hand. The point was in her palm. Fuck.

".. You're not.."

"No I'm not a transphobe, I just-" Just what? Thought he had huge pecs for a second? Imagining taking his clothes odd herself? Realized she was way more into him than she thought? Get it together Lauter. "You look good like that. Should be your new look, then I don't have to worry about my dear tutor dying from heat stroke."

Good save, Steph.

"Thanks Steph." She looked up to find him smiling so, so fucking softly at her.

[ace7librarian]

Hatchetfield Jewish headcanons!

Based on surnames and some unrelated headcanons.

*After Jane died, Tom really wanted to keep the Jewish traditions for Tim, but he had zero clue what to do, so he called Emma. She also had no idea what to do, but she tried her best.

*Ruth and Richie make fun of Pete for being the only goy in the squad. Everyone just assume he's Jewish, and that makes him really confused. Also, Ruth unironically ships Tanakh characters.

*Shapiro has a Jewish dad and a Catholic mom, so she got the Jewish surname and the Catholicism. She breaks the glass in her and miss mullberry's wedding. Miss mullberry is also Jewish.

*at one timeline Steph finds Solomon with the black book or something and blames him for encouraging the stereotype that Jews worship Satan.

*Dan Reynolds is Jewish. I have no reason for this.

*the following conversation happened at some point.

Emma: and I'm not going to let some republican, Christian old man-

Bob Metzger, offended: Christian????

Emma: ....

Bob: there's ONE synagogue. How did you never see me there???

Emma: I was smoking outside???

Bob: we're a big family! My grandchildren were outside! Our last name is Metzger!!

Emma: ....sorry. A republican old man.

Bob: there you go.

*Karen Chasity is very upset about having Solomon lauter as a mayor. Sam sweetly as well. I just know these two would want a Christian mayor.

*Daniel/stopwatch invites the other kids to celebrate Jewish holidays with him. Sophia melts some candlesticks and Hannah starts having visions when they read the Haggadah, but they still had a great time.

Characters that deserve an honourable mention:

The spankoffskis sound very Jewish, but we know ted is a Christian, and they both went to a Christian summer camp.

Linda says "mensch", but with the implications of the rich bitch being Jewish? No thanks. Plus she has way too much Christian symbolism in her character. My headcanon is that she heard Jews were controlling the media so she started using Yiddish slang to look richer. I'm sorry, but she would.

I love Gary Goldstein, but he is a walking stereotype.

[kissorkill16]

The Good Witch's Escape: A Hello Neighbor Fanfic

By JJ

Summary: Trinity is more powerful than anyone thought.

Trinity struggled in the grasps of the crow people, who she recognized as the bakery truck driver and the mayor.

"Put me down!", she screamed. "Let me go!"

But they didn't listen to her.

"Help! Anybody!"

She wanted to use her powers on these monsters, but it felt like they had some sort of safe guard that prevented her from doing so. Suddenly, Trinity felt herself being thrown onto a hard, wooden surface.

The bag that was forced over her head was suddenly ripped off, and she looked up to see the man with the pale face.

The man whose face she last saw before she was kidnapped and forced here.

"Why are you doing this?", she asked.

"Why, little girl. I'd be more than happy to explain.", said the crow man. He started walking around her and explaining.

"Long ago, there was once a young man named Franklin. Franklin didn't know how he got there, where he was, or why he was there. But all he knew was that he was cursed and cast to hell, no questions asked. He was once a human, now a corpse falling to bits.", he said. "So Franklin made a vow to curse the entire wretched town of Raven Brooks, burn it down until there is nothing left, not even ashes. He made his own little army, and turned them all into monsters so he wouldn't feel so alone."

As Trinity felt her bonds loosen, she asked the crow man a question.

"What about the stones?"

It was silent for a moment.

"The stones...", said Crowface. "Ah yes, the stones."

He then began to explain the story behind the stones.

"They weren't meant to give you or your little friends superpowers, they were meant to turn you all into my raven children, but one of my stupid members made a malfunction with them. Those stones were supposed to make you part of my cult, I left you that stone to thank you for dealing with Mr. Peterson.", he said. "But then you kids decided to play superheroes and turn against us. A simple thank you for the stones would've been nice."

Trinity rolled her eyes, "Thank you for the stones?", she asked incredulously. "You put Enzo and Maritza's parents in the hospital. You killed Delroy's dog. You got Ivan suspended. You nearly killed my parents! You don't fucking deserve a thank you!"

"Those things aren't half as bad as the coins, young lady."

Crowface snarled at her.

"I could've given you and all your little friends a coin instead, but I thought making you all my children would be a better option. But I can see now that that was a stupid mistake.", he said. "And not only that, but you keep standing in the way of my plans."

He smiled and took a knife out of his pocket.

"But don't worry, I can fix that."

He growled at her.

It was at that moment, Trinity finally broke free from her bonds, and a bright violet blast shined from her whole body. The blast was powerful enough to send Crowface flying into the wall.

Trinity saw it as her chance to run, so she ran in the opposite direction and out of the building the crow people put her in.

She turned around to see that the building was called the Fear Room, remembering her last conversation with the investigative journalist, Quentin.

"Rumors say that Peterson followed her into the Fear Room fun house at the Golden Apple Amusement Park. She was never seen again."

She turned around and ran, and hid behind a concession stand when she saw a couple of crow people that looked similar to Principal Abanate and Officer Leslie.

She looked all around the amusement park, and there were a lot of crow people in the park, and they were tearing apart the rides with their talons.

Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and her heart plummeted.

They were sabotaging the park.

Officer Leslie flew over behind Principal Abanate.

"Well, principal. You were right. That black book's mumbo jumbo worked.", he said. "The well is gurgling, almost ready for you know what."

Principal Abanate smiled, "Then there's no more need for Peterson. Have him eliminated.", she said.

Just then, Mr. Kinander ran to them and fell down to his knees, catching his breath.

"The master sent me.", he said. "The girl. She's gone!"

Trinity felt her breath hitch.

"He wants you to spread out and look for her."

Principal Abanate nodded and turned to look at Officer Leslie. "Spread out.", she said.

They all flew above into the air, and Trinity ran out of her hiding spot.

She felt stupid, she felt hopeless. She just ran without a plan, but she was already here, but didn't know what else to do.

Her eyes widened when she saw Principal Abanate charge at her from the air, almost grabbing her with her talons.

But Trinity got angry and raised her arms to her, and long, shiny violet chains shot out of her wrists, flying towards Abanate and trapping her in them.

She struggled in the chains, and Officer Leslie noticed and flew down to Trinity, only to end up in the same predicament as Abanate.

Trinity ran away from them and out of the amusement park, but before she left, she slammed the gate shut and wrapped the entire entrance in violet chains, and to make sure they really won't escape, she surrounded the park gate in purple fire.

Trinity ran away.

Meanwhile, her parents were at home in the kitchen. Her father took a tray of cookies out of the oven, and she put them on the table next to his wife, who was organizing bills.

"All I'm saying is that it's been years since the incident, and you still can't give him a chance.", said Mr. Bales.

His wife looked up at her husband, "How can I give him a chance after seeing what he's become? That boy is unstable.", she said.

Her husband couldn't help but let out a small laugh, "Careful. Don't let Mrs. Roth hear you."

"Don't even dare joke about that. It was embarrassing enough when we had that meeting in the principal's office."

"Well you were the one who accused him."

"No, Abanate was the one who accused him and worried me for no reason."

"Well you were the one who insisted on talking to his parents."

Just then, Trinity walked through the front door, and was about to go upstairs when her mother called out to her.

"Oh, hello. And where have you been, young lady?"

Trinity stopped in her tracks and went into the kitchen.

"Why would I tell you that? You wouldn't believe me anyway."

"Trinity."

"What?"

Trinity looked at her father, very annoyed. Her father took a deep breath and looked at his daughter.

"Trinity, your mother and I have been worried sick about you. We called you so many times, but you didn't answer.", he said.

Trinity was confused for a moment, then she took out her phone, and was nearly shocked at the number of missed calls and unanswered texts from her parents.

"You don't need to check. But I'm glad your phone's working.", he said. "Now where have you been since you're always sneaking out late and doing who knows what?"

"With God knows who.", finished her mother.

Trinity frustratedly pushed over a chair. "I've been with my friends, trying to save everyone in this town, including us, from murderers. They just tried to kill me!"

Her mother intervened.

"Shut it!", she said. "Your principal has been monitoring your behavior for weeks. She's been telling us how you and your friends are always running off somewhere else instead of coming home."

Trinity rolled her eyes. Even though she knew that bit was true, she had a couple of things to say.

"Sure. Believe the principal over your own fucking daughter. Well, did you know that my principal is part of the cult?", she asked. "They captured me and put me on a killer carnival ride! There were stuffed dead animal prizes! I was going to be taxidermied!"

Trinity looked at both of her parents, and they looked back at her like she was insane. Maybe they did think she was insane, what her mother said next confirmed all of that.

"Girl, if you could hear yourself talking."

Before she could say anything else, Trinity slammed her hands on the table. "I'm not crazy!", she yelled. Her mother yelled back at her, "Then why are you acting like it?"

Trinity threw her hands in the air, frustrated and exasperated.

"Y'know, you guys made a promise that you would learn to trust me more."

"We did, but -", said her father before her mother interrupted her. "Only if you promised not to play detective anymore and stop snooping around in other people's business. It's your own fault we're breaking that promise. How are we supposed to trust you after you've given us 0 reason to?"

"It's not like you've given me any reason to trust you guys either!"

Both her mother and her father were taken aback by their daughter's outburst.

"How can I trust either of you if you guys don't even let me explain my side of the story? That's how it's always been since Shelbyville!", she said. "You remember I was almost kidnapped by that psycho, Mr. Peterson, and you guys promised to listen more, to trust me more, but years later, everything I've gone through has been for nothing!"

Despite his hesitance, her father slowly walked over to her and put a hand on her back.

"Trinity, after all you went through, maybe it was wrong for us to think that you could just start over in a similar place. In Shelbyville, you were snooping around. Here, you're still snooping around."

Then Trinity felt her mother gently squeeze her hand.

"All we want is real change.", said her father. "You know that. Right?"

At that moment, Trinity just snapped.

She yanked her hand away from her mother and pushed her father away.

"Change?", she asked incredulously. "Do you know how stupid that sounds?! I'm trying to keep us alive!"

Trinity didn't notice how her figure was turning purple, and when she slammed her hands on the table, she ended up almost breaking it and leaving cracks in it.

Then the kitchen went dark.

Everyone froze for a moment, then they all jumped when they heard a loud, banshee scream, followed by a tall figure in the dark with white eyes that shined so bright.

The light turned back on, and everyone was still in shock.

Trinity looked at her parents for one more minute, then ran upstairs before they could say anything else.

"I'm going to bed.", she said.

[appreciate-your-bones]

I’m sure people with more coherent thoughts have mentioned this but I rewatched honey queen and am thinking.

So like. Rowan raised Linda for the slaughter right. We all agree on that. The whole piggy goes to market / her childhood name being piggy / nibbly’s pig symbolism thing speaks for itself.

But!!! It was super obvious to me why certain lib called out characters during the summoning (tinky wants all the spankoffskis, of course he’s going to call out Pete. Grace and her terror of being watched by god as she does ‘terrible things’ is being watched by blinky) but I had to think a little more for the nibbly/Steph connection.

And then I realized. If Steph had never met Pete and had never associated with the nerds, if her father would have stayed mayor, she would have been the perfect candidate for honey queen. Think about it. She would have been rich. She would have been powerful. You know her father would have broken her down enough to be popular, a hatchetfield darling.

Her father has made deals with the lords in black before, who says that the mayor, a judge of the honey queen pageant, wouldn’t give up his daughter for- who knows? Power? Long life? His wife back? A better daughter?

Anyway I love the idea of the honey queen’s popularity literally eating her alive (a reason besides the immaculate vibes to love human!nibblys popular girl esc outfit) as well as a powerful woman’s power only being superficial and being an easily retractable gift from her actually powerful father

Also nibbly is the cannibalism god which makes him superior thank you for coming to my Ted talk

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

I'm salty about The Ghost and Molly McGee's cancellation and how it's another example of networks and studios screwing over a show that didn't earn a profit despite doing next to nothing to help it earn a profit.

You got some fluffy headcanons about the show to help this poor salty soul.

Still mulling things over for post-series headcanons. I do have a few but I wanna wait till I have a good list and some designs before posting. I can give a few tho', 1 per major character.

Sharon worked through her grief of losing Scratch and created a series of wonderful art pieces which both hang in the Town Hall and in a museum in the capital.

Pete eventually manages to get a victory for Brighton over Perfektborg with an excellent redesign of the market district. While Perfektborg would win the next year, Pete was still hailed as a hero by the Brightonians.

Molly became Mayor of Brighton when she got old enough and felt she was ready to run, the previous Mayor Brunson even endorsed her run and she won easily. She has been enhappifying the town even more since for both the living and ghost citizens of Brighton

Daryl went legit...kinda. He still has some shady dealings but the other businesses he has are 100% legit (mostly thanks to Andrea's help and business know-how).

Libby became a popular author after with the encouragement of Molly, she sent in a manuscript and was published at 16. Since then she's been writing a bunch of stories of various genres (even outselling her father which brought her a bit of joy)

Andrea worked with Molly to rework her (Andrea's) life plan and it's been working great for her. The new "honest Andrea" image has been working well for her and has found it liberating not just for herself but against her family who has been trying anything to regain their empire, meanwhile Andrea has been happy separate from them

Ollie is a living therapist to the dead and has been helping ghosts with their unfinished business. While not his main job, it is the one he finds the most satisfying.

June continued her research on ghosts and now that actual ghosts are friends of her and family, she has direct test subjects. Her research was at first laughed at by "ghost experts" but after a few years of her advice was proven to work she got the respect that her parents never got.

Geoff & Jeff visited the McGees more often after Scratch left. While not the best at giving life advice, Geoff still tried to help Molly and co while growing up (Jeff, while supportive of his husband knows that he isn't the best with that stuff and would correct things)

[amethystunarmed]

I Need a Shovel to Love Him

Word Count: 4,226 A03 Link Richie calls Peter after the events of the opening night of Workin' Girls.

~~~

Holy fucking shit.

Peter is about to lose his virginity to Stephanie Lauter. 

They are on the couch in Peter's brother's apartment. Ted is gone for the evening, went to Ruth’s musical at the Starlight, but he had thrown a condom at Peter with a wink before he left. Peter was equal parts mortified and grateful.

By pure luck, Peter and Steph had managed to avoid getting tickets the same night Ted was going, giving them an opportunity to finally go all the way. They are making out on the couch, Steph straddling him while he gazes up at her in awe. Neither of them are wearing their shirts (Peter has come a long way from the first time he saw Steph in her bra and got so flustered he had to stop. He's just lucky she thought it was both hilarious and adorable). Her skin is hot against his, and when she trails her fingers down his spine, it gives him chills. Steph has finally taken pity on Peter, and moved to take her bra off herself, when the phone rings.

Pete sits up to grab it and Steph groans, flopping forward so her head rests on his chest. 

"Are you serious Spankoffski? You're answering your fucking phone right now?"

"I figure if it's my brother telling us he's on his way back because he finally realized the show isn't about sex workers, we'd want to know."

"... You get a pass just this once." She slides off his lap and Peter immediately misses her weight.

Peter fumbles for his phone and is surprised by the name that pops up.

The Power of God and Anime. Richie. 

Peter frowns down at his phone. Richie would rather die than make a phone call. For all Ruth loved talking to telemarketers, Richie about broke out in hives every time he had to make a call. (Between his phobia and Ruth's penchant for making the delivery boy uncomfortable, Peter had been making calls to Pizza Hut for them for years.) Richie wouldn't call. Not unless...

Peter hits the button and brings the phone to his ear, even as Stephanie groans behind him. He slides his legs off the couch and stands as he talks.

"Hey Richie, what's up? Aren't you at the show?"

Sobbing. Richie is sobbing. Peter's stomach sinks. "Richie? Richie, what's happening?"

"Pete?" Steph asks, suddenly concerned. Peter holds a finger up to her.

Richie hiccups. His voice is shaky, so much that Pete can barely understand him. 

"He- he- He went crazy, he killed them-" 

Peter feels like he's had ice water dumped over him.

"Who? Who killed who, Richie?" Peter gets up and grabs his shirt from where he'd thrown it earlier.

"Everyone, he- he-"

"Where are you?"

"The Theater."

Oh thank God.

"Richie, my brother is there, go find Ted, okay?" Ted was a fucking asshole but he would (probably) look out for Ruth and Richie, if only so Pete didn't tear him a new one. "He'll get you and Ruth out of there okay?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," Richie says, sniffling, voice hitching. "Ruth and Ted are dead, Peter."

Peter drops his phone. 

He doesn't remember what happens next. He blinks and they're in the back of Mayor Lauter’s limo. Steph is holding Peter's now cracked phone to her ear. Miss Tessburger is prattling on about something but Pete can't understand her. Her words sound like a broken garbage disposal, continually revving but never getting any clearer.

He blinks again and Steph is kneeling in front of him. She sways as they take a sharp turn. She should be wearing a seatbelt, he thinks, inanely.

"Pete, you're scaring me."

Peter doesn't know why. He hasn't even done anything. 

He blinks and they're at the theater. Steph's hand is firm in his, the only thing that keeps him from drifting away. He trails behind her, letting her guide him to the sirens and the flashing lights. Until he sees-

Richie.

Peter loses time again. Suddenly he is sprinting, and Richie is too and Peter slams into him and they fall to the ground and Peter has his fingernails clawed tightly into Richie's vest so nothing can pry Richie away from him and-

He is sitting in the back of the ambulance. A scratchy orange blanket is wrapped around his shoulders. Richie is next to him. He has Peter's hand in a death grip, squeezing so tight Peter is beginning to lose feeling in his fingers.

An EMT is shining a light in his penlight in Peter’s eyes. It fucking hurts. Peter blinks aggressively at him.

“His pupils dilate, I don’t see any sign of concussion. As far as I can tell, Peter here is just suffering from a pretty extreme shock.”

He gives Peter a pitying little smile. Peter wants to knock his teeth out.

“But he’s not responding.” Stephanie is standing off the shoulder of the EMT. She has her arms crossed over her chest, her chin cocked out. It’s the same stance she’d had when she’d stood down Max Jagerman after they first started dating. It means she’s scared. “You can see it, he did it in the car too. Why the fuck can’t he hear us?”

The EMT hesitates a moment, then speaks slowly, like an adult on Sesame Street.

“Sometimes, when someone goes through something terrible, their brain will... take them away for a little. It’s a defense mechanism.”

Peter has already heard enough of this. 

“You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not here.”

“Oh, thank god.” The tension melts out of Steph as she throws herself at Peter’s free side. Her arms wrap around his shoulder and she tucks her head into his neck, like she is trying to get as close to him as possible. “You’re okay. Jesus Pete, never scare me like that again.”

"Pete?" Steph and Peter pull away from each other to look at a Black man in a checkered shirt. He nervously fiddles with a button on the cuff of his sleeve. Peter hadn’t initially noticed him, but he’s pretty sure the man had been standing there for a while. He seemed vaguely familiar, but Peter couldn’t place him. "You're Peter Spankoffski, right?"

Steph pushes over the ambulance, and stands in between him and Peter and Richie. "Listen, if you want a statement, go talk to some other smarmy asshole looking to get famous off this. Try Linda Monroe, she has an affinity for vultures." She is so fucking cool, so brave. Peter thinks he may be in love with her.

Oh my god he's in love with her.

He's in love with Stephanie Lauter.

He wants to tell Ruth, even though she'll ask a million uncomfortable questions. 

He wants to tell Ted, even though he'd give some awful advice about not being tied down.

Peter squeezes Richie’s hand.

"No, no," the man says. "I'm one of Ted's co-workers? Bill. Do you remember me?” The name slots into place. Peter remembers him in the backgrounds of office party pictures Ted had shown him and from when Ted brought Peter to a “Bring Your Kid to Work Day” even before he moved in with Ted full time. He has a recollection of Bill smiling at him from where he had hidden behind Ted, telling him, Richie, and Alice Woodward to all play nice together. Peter gives him a faint nod, which puts Bill somewhat at ease.

“Look at you, all grown up. So tall!” He is studying Peter with a sad sort of softness, cataloging all the changes from that little kid he’d met years ago. Peter wants to find the nearest bridge he can jump off of to avoid this conversation. “I wouldn’t have recognized you if Ted hadn’t had a picture on his desk." 

Peter wonders if he spontaneously developed a latex allergy, it feels like his throat is swelling shut. “He... He has a picture of me on his desk?” 

"Yes, he does.” Peter waits for him to elaborate, but Bill just offers him an awkward little half smile. Which, what the fuck? Did he just come over to here to remind Peter he was going to have to go to his brother’s fucking office and clean out his desk?

“Bill, I don’t want to be rude, but... why are you here?”

“Oh.” Bill furrows his brow at that, like he isn’t actually sure. “We came here together. Ted and I."

Peter squints at him. "Like a date?" He knew Ted had been sleeping around the office (knew too much about it, because his brother was kind of a slut), but he'd been pretty sure he'd been hung up on someone named Charlotte.

"No!" Bill denies, "He- I had an extra ticket, and I- he was the only one who wanted to come." Bill suddenly looked nauseous. "H- he was the only one who wanted to come tonight, and to spend time with me, and the whole night I just-"

"So you're the reason my brother is dead." The whole group snaps their heads to stare at him, even the EMT. He doesn’t know why they all look so surprised. It seems like a pretty logical deduction to make.

Steph wraps her arm around Peter’s shoulder, but she stays standing. He feels small tucked against her side. It feels nice.

Richie gives his hand a squeeze and runs his finger along the side of Peter’s hand. It feels nice too.

Bill sucks in a breath, like somebody stabbed him. Which is fucking hilarious, given the circumstances. He looks at Peter like Peter did something to hurt him. It does not feel nice.

“What? Don’t have anything to say about it? You just said it, you were the reason he was here.” The EMT winces, and Peter glares at him. He wisely decides to fuck off to the front of the ambulance.

“Peter, that’s not- I’m didn’t-” Bill fumbles over himself. Peter isn’t sure what he fucking expected.

“I think you should go.”

“Right, right, but I just wanted to say, if you need anything, you can-” He fumbles with his back pocket and pulls out a wallet, nearly dropping it on the ground. Ted always says that Bill never knows when to drop a subject, and so far, Peter isn’t seeing anything to disapprove this fact. 

“Here,” Bill says, as he holds a white card out to Peter. “My number’s on there, you can give me a call-"

And Peter just wants him to shut the fuck up.

"I said fucking GO!"

Bill jumps and drops his business card. Peter feels bad, but he's too fucking tired to apologize. He slumps against Steph's shoulder. Her breathing feels like a gravitational pull, and he doesn't think he could escape it if he tried.

Bill scurries off, and Peter is grateful. “Fuck,” he groans, hiding his face in the crown of Stephanie’s head. She smells like sweat and that fruity shampoo her dad won’t stop buying for her. “Ted was right, he’s a fucking busybody.” It tears through his chest, even saying his brother’s name. He thinks the only thing that could hurt worse would have been not saying it.

It grows quiet. At least, as quiet as the site of a disaster can be. If he listens carefully, he can hear Chief Sweetly crying about one of the actors or Officer Bailey debating with Grace Chasity over who gets to keep his gun. (He's pretty sure Grace is winning.) The noises of the parking lot combine into a low background, police interrogations and muffled sobbing weaving into a dull drone. The police have turned their sirens off, but the lights still flicker red and blue and white. Peter closes his eyes, and the solid colors flicker across the black of his eyelids. The repetition is soothing, smoothing over the anxious hum that has been blaring a klaxon in the back of his brain. Between the warm pillar of Steph in front of him and Richie’s solid weight across his back, Peter finds his eyes drifting shut.

Richie’s shoulders hitching, however, gets him wide awake in an instant. Peter sits up, away from Steph, and pulls Richie closer to him, so he is angled toward Peter. Silent tears flood Richie’s cheeks. His mouth is screwed up in a crooked line.

“What happened?” Peter asks, frantically looking Richie over. He seemed fine when they arrived, but Peter had just been happy he was breathing, he could have missed something important-

"It's my fault Ruth is dead," Richie weeps.

"What?"

"I killed her, Peter. I killed Ruth." Tears stream down Richie's cheeks.

"I thought you said-"

"I told her to audition! She wasn't going too, she said she wouldn't get in. I'm the one... I'm the reason."

Oh fuck.

"Richie..."

Richie just sobs and latches onto his shoulder. Peter can feel time slipping again and he digs his nails into his palm to stay present.

"Richie, it's not your fault."

"I'm the reason she was here."

The sick feeling in Peter's gut twists deeper. That isn't what he... Fuck. What does he say? What does he say?

Steph sees his hesitation and gets a wild look in her eyes. Her hand flutters to the back of Peter’s neck. Her fingernails graze the skin in a repetitive line, like she is trying to beckon him back. He wonders if she thinks he lost time again. If so, she doesn’t say. She focuses all her attention on Richie. "It's not your fault, okay? You blame the murderer, you blame the theater for hiring this whackjob, you blame God for all I care, but you don't blame yourself for that shit, okay? That's how you drive yourself crazy, and Ruth wouldn't want that, you torturing yourself for believing in her. Okay?" She reaches across Peter and takes Richie's free hand. "Promise me."

"Promise you?"

"You won't blame yourself. Promise me."

"I'll... I'll try.”Steph opens her mouth, most likely to argue, but she is interrupted. From the side of the ambulance, the EMT clears his throat, far too loudly, and rounds the corner.

Steph glares at him, but only says, "We'll work on it.” Richie nods, and  Peter is positive he is counting on her forgetting about it. 

With the EMT back, their closeness starts to itch. Peter can feel him searching them, trying to figure out just what they mean to each other. Peter is pretty sure a vivisection would feel less intrusive.

The three of them untangle from one other. Steph habitually tucks her hair behind her ears, straightening to perfect posture. Even at the scene of a disaster, she maintains her image. Not that Peter blames her. He is sure Dan and Donna will have all sorts of footage from tonight all over the news tomorrow. As a local celebrity, Stephanie will probably get a featured segment. The thought makes him feel nauseous. "Everything seems to be in order!" The EMT says brightly. "I don't think you two need to go to the hospital. Do you three have someone who can take you home?"

"My uncle is coming to get me," Peter lets him know. He looks toward Stephanie and Peter. “He can probably get the two of you too!”

Stephanie's frown deepens. It has been such a common expression for her tonight, Peter feels bad. He has etched so much grief into her face. "But Peter-"

"I'm fine, Steph."

"No you're fucking not. You keep fucking... Leaving."

"I've been here the whole time."

"But you haven't. The lights are on but nobody is home. It's... It's fucking terrifying, Pete."

Oh.

Pete turns to Richie, who nods. His palm is slick with sweat against Peter's. He looks freaked out, even considering everything that has happened tonight, which Peter again feels bad about. He is letting everyone down today. Still... There is one person he can't fail. He can't.

Peter looks up at the EMT.

“Where is my brother?” 

Richie swallows nervously. Peter feels his Adam's apple bob against his shoulder. "Pete...” He says slowly, like Peter just asked if he could move to Clivesdale. “He's d-"

"I fucking got that." He doesn't need a reminder. "Where... Where did they take him. After."

The EMT presses his lips together. “You should let your parents handle that, sweetie-”

“Then it’ll never get done. Where is he?”

“Everyone who was... who had passed before we arrived was taken to the hospital morgue.” 

“Huh.” Images of Ted, pale and expressionless on a silver slab flash through his head. So many nurses were going to see Ted naked. He would have been ecstatic. 

Then Peter is laughing. He is laughing so hard he can’t breathe. Stephanie and Richie are saying something, and they sound almost frantic and someone is shaking his shoulder but it’s so fucking funny Peter can’t stop. Tears stream down his cheeks as he cackles. And at some point his laughs have turned to sobs. They shake his whole body, and he thinks he might be screaming. He falls into Richie, and Richie is sobbing too. He wraps his arms around Peter, and hugs him tight to his chest. Peter can feel wet spots on Richie’s shirt where he is soaking him with tears and snot, but Richie only holds him tighter.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Pete,” he murmurs over and over into Peter’s hair. A warm weight drapes over Pete’s back, and  Stephanie reaches up to pet through Peter’s hair. 

“Let it out baby, let it out.” Her voice is wet.

Peter isn’t sure how long they sit there, crying. Long enough, that Peter runs out of tears, and he just sniffles through shaky breaths, feeling like a wrung out dish towel.

“What am I going to do?”

“What do you mean?” 

“Where... Where am I going to stay?” His parents were out of the question. Peter wouldn’t go back, even if they wouldn’t just slam the door in his face. Without Ted to pay rent on the apartment... “I’m homeless. Fuck.”

“You can stay with me!” Stephanie assures him. 

“Your dad is going to be okay with that?” 

“Are you kidding? He’ll love it. Taking you in right before the election? He’ll look like a hero.” She scoffs. “He’ll probably claim it was his idea.”

A car pulls into the parking lot, a beat up red Toyota probably older than Peter is himself. The bumper is more rust than metal. At the wheel is the mean barista from Beanie's. She is wearing an expression that Peter has never seen on her before, blatant concern weighing her face. Out of the car, comes Richie’s uncle Paul. He is still in his suit, like he was relaxing at home in a starched shirt and tie. Considering everything he knows about Paul, that probably was the case.

“Richie!” He yells, louder than Peter imagined he could be, “Richie!” His head frantically turns back and forth as he scans the crowds.

“Over here!” Richie yells, standing and waving his and Peter’s conjoined hands. He has backed up, so the lines of their legs are still pressed together.

Paul’s entire body decompresses when he sees Richie, like he is sighing with his entire body. He staggers against the hood of the car, briefly studying himself with his hands, before pushing past it. He cuts the corner too fast, slams his thigh into the headlight, but he doesn't even seem to notice the impact. He speedwalks over to the back of the ambulance, running up to his nephew to take Richie's face into his hands. “Richie,” he gasps, like holding him is the first breath of oxygen he has gotten all night. Something about it makes Peter's already sore eyes sting, and he has to swallow a lump in his throat.

Richie looks up at Paul with a brittle smile. “Hi Uncle Paul. Thank you for coming.” He says it like Paul has picked him up early from a sleepover. Paul doesn't even answer. He just opens his mouth and then closes it, once, twice, then a third time. Then he pulls Richie forward, unflinchingly, into his chest. His shoulders shake.

“Jeez, Uncle Paul!” Richie shrieks, “You're crushing me.” He doesn't fight the hold though, merely wraps his free arm around Paul and squeezes. The hand still holding Peter’s trembles.

The mean barista jogs up to them, finally catching up from where Paul had run off without her. Peter remembers Richie mentioning she and Paul were dating, but Peter hadn't realized they were “Drive me to get my nephew from the scene of a mass murder” serious. Good for Paul.

"Hey kid. How are you holding up?"

Richie sniffs. "Sorry, Emma. I know you were excited to have dinner with Tom and Tim."

"Kid, you don't have to apologize for... For any of it. I'm just glad you're okay." She places her hand on Paul's shoulder. “Babe, you're going to suffocate him.”

“Right, right,” Paul says, distantly. He lets Richie lean away, hands slowly falling, like he is ready to reach out and grab him again at any moment. He glances over, paling at the sight of Peter and Stephanie. He clears his throat as he processes their presence. “Hello Peter. Stephanie.” He says Stephanie's name slowly, like midway through saying it, he realized he wasn’t actually sure he was right. 

She graciously doesn't mention it. “Hey, Mr. Matthews.” Paul frowns, like he always has the few times she's joined them for a study session, but for once doesn't argue. Instead, he turns to Peter.

“Richie mentioned that Ted... Is... Is he, um-”

Peter doesn't have the patience for this. “Ted's dead, yeah.”

Paul gets that same stricken look Bill had, and maybe Peter should be nicer, but to be honest, he just wants people to stop looking at him. Even the fucking barista, who Peter is 99% sure has spit in his hot chocolate, is looking at him like he's a walking tragedy and Peter can hardly stand the writhing weight of their pity.

“Okay... Okay, okay,” Paul repeats, slowly, taking a deep breath. "I'm... I'm sorry for your loss. Ted and I weren't close but... I know he really, really loved you."

It's so impersonal, so distant. It’s a stranger’s eulogy.

It's exactly what Peter expects from Paul. Their mismatched relationship used to be something Peter, Ruth, and Richie laughed at Ted recalling his "best friend Paul" while Paul clearly only tolerated Ted, at best. Ruth had once called it a "tragic, one-sided bromance" and Peter had laughed so hard, milk shot out his nose. But Ruth isn't here. And Ted isn't here. And Paul doesn't like Peter's brother. And Peter can't help but say it.

"Ted called you his best friend." From the way Paul's eyes widen, this is news to him.

"Oh. I... I didn't know he, um, felt that way. I kind of thought he didn't like me."

"Being mean is how Ted shows affection. He learned it from our parents."

"Jesus fucking Christ, Pete," Steph exhales, like the words pain her. She nuzzles closer to his shoulder.

"Speaking of parents,” Paul says, in that frantic way he does when he is trying to change the subject, “are they coming to pick you up?"

"Fuck, I hope not." Peter says, before he can stop himself. He groans. Fuck his filter tonight, apparently he’ll just say anything. Stephanie, Paul, and Emma are looking at him with barely masked concern.

“Peter can stay over, right?” Richie asks, nervously. He still hasn't let go of Peter. Peter can't imagine asking him too.

“Of course,” Paul says and nods toward Peter. Then he looks at Stephanie. “Are you... Are you coming as well?”

“I...” Steph looks between them. “I’m not-” It is the most at-a-loss Pete has ever seen her. “I wouldn’t want to... You guys were... Ruth and I, we weren’t... We only hung out a few times, and... I shouldn’t.” It’s Richie who reaches out and grabs her hand.

“Please, come with us. For Pete, and... for me?” Somehow, tears begin to drip down Richie’s face. (Peter is distantly impressed. He thinks that if he cried anymore, he would crumble into dust.) “You’re our friend, Steph. You are Ruth’s friend too.” He chuckles, and chokes on it. “She was so excited to have a friend who was a girl, you had no idea.”

Steph sniffles a bit. “She was my first girl friend too. At least, the first one who was actually nice to me.”

“Steph...” Paul says. Peter didn’t realize it at first, but his eyes are red. “Even if you think you weren’t as close-” Paul’s voice cracks, “-as you should have been, you get to be sad too, okay?”

“Paul...” Emma says, a twinge of genuine grief in her tone, but Peter can’t bring himself to care about whatever the fuck they are talking about, because Steph is looking between him and Richie like she is waiting for them to say something. Words are fucking impossible but to be honest, Peter doesn’t want to talk anyways. He holds his arms out and Stephanie falls into them. And Peter was wrong, because as Steph silently cries into his shoulder and Richie worms his ways into the hug, shoulders heaving, Peter finds he has more tears left to shed after all.

[amazingmsme]

Wake Up (Proto)Call

AN: FINALLY, MY FIRST NPMD FIC!!! Been wanting to write this since I saw it, the brainrot is strong with this one. Just some Spankoffski bros fluff ft. Steph. This fic was an absolute blast to write! This trio literally own my heart now, wtf. Here’s day 29!

Ted walked down the hall toward's Peter's closed door, hands shoved deep in his pocket. He barely gave a knock before opening it.

"Hey Pete, got a min- oh. Well hello." Ted stood in the doorway awkwardly, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

Stephanie Lauter looked about the same, sitting on the leaning against the headboard with a book in hand and Peter napping in her lap. A blush quickly spread across her cheeks as a teasing smirk tugged on his lips. She gave a shy wave.

"Um, hi."

Ted walked into the room, milling about as he inspected his brother's shelves of action figures, comics and other nerdy memorabilia. He held a hand out for her to shake.

"I'm Ted, Pete's older brother." She arched a brow, but didn't shake his hand. He held his hands up in surrender. "Too cool for a handshake, hey, I get it." This seemed to snap her out of it.

"No! It's not that, you just- caught me off guard is all."

Ted gave her a skeptical, albeit amused look. "Mmhmm." He turned his back to her and grabbed a stack of comics. "I owe him 20 bucks now, so thanks a lot." Steph scoffed.

"Excuse me?" she asked incredulously, setting her book aside.

"I thought he was full of shit when he said he was meeting the mayor's daughter at Pasquale's, so obviously I made a bet," he explained as he started to sift through the stack. It was Stephanie's turn to smirk.

"And obviously you lost."

Ted snorted, but didn't pay her much attention beyond that. Steph frowned. "You know he's really particular about his stuff, right?" Ted turned around on his heels, bending at the waist to get closer to her height.

"Seeing as I've known him since birth, uh, yeah I do, lil miss," he snarked. Steph glared at him and flipped him off.

"Don't fucking call me that. I'm sure Peter doesn't want you snooping around his room anyway," she sassed back, crossing her arms, careful not to jostle Peter as he slept.

Ted rolled his eyes, somehow putting his whole body into it. "Yeah I was hoping he'd be gone, but asleep is the next best thing," he said, turning back to face her. "If you must know, I'm just trying to keep track of everything he's got. All this junk looks the same to me, and I can't just ask what he doesn't have, 'cause then he'll know what I'm getting him-" he started rambling.

Steph's expression softened into a grin. "His birthday's still a month away."

"Yeah, and I'm running out of time," he mused, setting the comics back where he got them. He even made sure they were ordered correctly, Stephanie noticed. He glanced at her, looking as though he wanted to say something. Stephanie scoffed and looked him up and down. "What?"

"I really wanna do this thing, but if I do Pete's probably gonna be pissed," he said, mischievous eyes glued to his brother's sleeping form. Mischief came off of him in waves Steph hummed as she reached for her book again.

"Then you probably shouldn't do it."

Ted took one step closer to the door, but meandered his way back to the side of the bed.

"Oh but it's a tradition. You see, it was always my job to wake him up for school, dude sleeps like a fuckin' log-" he started. Steph frowned and shook her head, a hand carding through his long hair.

"Don't wake him up, he's tired. I told him he could nap."

"Yeah but he has a guest over, and that shit's just flat out rude in my opinion. Besides, I think you'd really like it," he said the last bit in a singsong tone. She rolled her eyes and returned to her book.

"I'm serious, don't bother him." Then quieter, she added, "He's cute while he sleeps." He made a gagging motion while she was distractedly looking down at Peter, stopping right before she looked back at him.

Ted turned around in "defeat" and headed to the door, muttering, "Even cuter when he's being tickled." Now that got her attention.

"What?"

Her tone was joyous and inquisitive and when Ted looked at her, she had an evil smile spreading across her face. That's more like it.

Ted sauntered back, sitting on the bed next to his brother. "Oh yeah, one thing you need to know about my lil bro is that he's like, crazy ticklish. Seriously, you're welcome, I just gave you the key to getting anything you want from him," he chuckled, only have joking.

Steph was looking at her boyfriend in a new light. "Thank you. That is... very intriguing information."

Ted made a show of cracking his knuckles as he spoke, "This is one of the only ways to actually get him up. Yeah an alarm will wake him up, but he won't actually get outta bed, ya know?" He was hunched over Peter's sleeping frame with hands hovering over his torso. He gave her a sly grin. "I don't get to do this as often as I used to, so I'll take any chance I can get."

Steph giggled and ducked her head, "I don't blame you."

Peter was laying on his side with his head resting on Steph's thighs, his knees tucked close to his chest. Ted started poking up and down his side, slow at first but gaining speed as he went. To Stephanie's delight, sleepy giggles slipped past his lips as he began to stir.

Sporadic poking turned to scribbling and the small huffs of laughter grew more consistent. His hands swatted blindly at offending ones, but lacked the strength or accuracy to protect himself.

"C'mon Pete, time to wake up," he cooed, one hand trailing up to scribble at his neck. A tiny squeal slipped out as Peter scrunched his neck, burying his face in the flannel tied around Steph's waist.

"Tehed leave mehehe alooone," he whined in his half asleep state. It took a second for his foggy brain to connect the dots, but once they did he was wide awake. He shot up so fast it startled both of them, Steph even letting out a startled squeak. "TED WHAT THE FUCK? GET OUTTA MY ROOM!" he yelled and pointed at the door, face quickly turning red.

Ted sat on the edge of the bed, completely frozen with his hands in the air as if he'd been caught by the police. He was fighting off his own laughter, mouth gaping open in shock at the outburst. Shock quickly gave way to amusement.

He wore a sly yet somehow sheepish grin as he looked at Stephanie. "I promise he usually isn't like this," he joked, shooting her a wink.

"GET OUT!" Peter repeated, using his long legs to his advantage, kicking his brother in the back to shove him off the bed. Ted stumbled to his feet, giving his brother a bewildered look. What the hell was his deal? Oh right, they weren't alone.

"Alright aright, I'm leaving," he admitted defeat. He only made it two steps before Stephanie spoke up.

"No you aren't." Peter stared at his girlfriend, a look of utter betrayal in his face. Ted's brows furrowed in confusion as he turned back around.

"I'm not?"

"Yeah, he's not?"

"Ted here was just about to give a detailed demonstration on all your tickle spots," she said, so matter of factly. Both Spankoffski brothers scoffed in shock before she continued, "Weren't you?" She looked at Ted expectantly, cocking her head to the side. There was something almost... challenging in her eyes. As if she dared him not to comply to her demands.

"I wasn't planning on it, but if you insist!" It took little to no convincing for Ted to take the golden opportunity presented here.

"No wait!" Peter protested, about to bolt off the bed when a hand around his wrist pulled him back. His nervous smile grew wider by the second. "Steph, let go."

"No," she said, an evil grin firmly in place. She snatched for his other wrist, and he moved it out of reach just in time. He held his arm out to the side as far as he could while Stephanie stretched across him, trying to grab him. She took the cheaters way out in the end and scribbled in his exposed armpit, causing him to slam his arm against his side for protection, a bark of laughter escaping past his lips. She easily caught his wrist and pulled both of his arms above his head.

"Thanks for being so cooperative babe," she said and Peter rolled his eyes.

"You're not welcome," he snarked.

"I'd be nicer if I were you. She doesn't look like she holds back," Ted chuckled as he sat on his ankles to keep him in place. Peter kicked and tugged on his legs, but they remained firmly trapped.

"C'mon guys, this isn't funny!"

"Really? Then why're you laughing?"

"But I'm not-" Peter was cut off with a shriek when Ted struck, squeezing his younger brother's boney knees. He yanked his arms down, catching Steph off guard with the level of strength he displayed. His hands immediately moved to cover his face and clamp over his mouth.

"Oh yeah, forgot to warn you, he's stronger than he looks," Ted added casually, as if he wasn't making Peter scream with laughter. "But knees: major weak spot." Steph nodded in understanding as she wrestled Peter's arms into her hold once more.

"Ohoho you're one toho tahahahalk!" he managed through his laughter.

"This isn't about me though, is it? Nooo, it's about you," he emphasized his point with a poke to his tummy, making him try to curl in on himself with a squeak. Ted continued, "Anyway, his belly's also pretty bad," he noted, forming a claw with his hand and hovered it in the air. Peter saw what he was doing and shook his head frantically.

"NO! Tehehed Ihihi'll kihihill you!" he threatened through giddy, nervous giggles. His older brother merely shrugged.

"I'd like to see you try," he said, not quite as condescending as usual.

Steph had had enough just watching and shifted his hands under her legs so she could join the fray. She looked at Ted expectantly.

"Where should I start?" she asked, smiling at the indignant cry Peter let out. Ted chuckled in amusement.

"Well he's ticklish just about anywhere, so knock yourself out," he encouraged, ignoring the indignant protest that mingled with Peter's laughter.

"Yeah, but what's a good spot?" she pressed further, seemingly unsatisfied with the vague answer.

"Well if you wanna hear the cutest giggles ever then go for his neck. Oh! And if you scratch at this one spot behind his ears he'll snort really loud, it's hilarious!"

"TEHEHED! Shut thehehe fuck uhup!" he shrieked, his cheeks taking on a dark pink hue from the flustering conversation taking place overhead.

"Wow, is that how you talk to your brother?" Steph asked in a taunting tone. Peter shook his head, babbling protests spilling from his mouth as she skittered her nails over his neck. Ted really wasn't kidding: this was probably the cutest sound she'd ever heard her boyfriend make. She was smiling down at him, her grin stretched from ear to ear as she scribbled her nails just behind his ears.

Peter snorted and tried hiding his face in the crook of his arm, but it still left half of it exposed for Steph's viewing pleasure.

“Oho my God, that’s so cute!” she exclaimed, leaning so far into his personal space they nearly touched noses. Ted fake gagged behind her back, for no one’s benefit but his own. “Do it again,” she ordered, using both hands to scratch at that spot.

A loud squeal was abruptly cut off by a giggly snort, and Peter turned a shade darker.

“Steheheph nohoho!” he whined, kicking his legs futilely where they remained pinned.

“Steph yes!” he cried, ducking down to blow a raspberry on his neck. Peter threw his head back, wild cackles filling the air. Ted leaned back, looking impressed and proud.

“Wow, and I didn’t even have to tell you about that!” he teased, reaching out to tweak Peter’s hips. He yelped, twisting side to side.

When Steph blew the third raspberry, Ted decided to show a little mercy. He grabbed a lock of Stephanie’s long hair, giving a few gentle tugs to get her attention, “Hey, we wanna keep him alive, yeah?” Steph looked over her shoulders, leveling him with a harsh glare as she yanked her hair back.

“You do?” Peter asked breathlessly from where he laid beneath his tormentors. They both chuckled and finally relented.

“Mhm,” Ted hummed cheerfully, standing up from the bed and dusting himself off.

“You got a funny way of showin’ it.”

“Hey, what’re brothers for?” he asked with a shrug. He held his hand out for a fist bump. Peter scoffed, looked at the hand, then at his brother. He sighed in defeat and gave him a fist bump. He turned back towards the door, ready to leave for real this time, when he was stopped once again by a familiar voice.

“I’ll get you back you know!”

Ted stopped in the doorway, one arm resting against the frame as he casually leaned on one foot. Peter was sitting up now, leveling him with a determined stare. It was a look Ted had seen before. He smirked; Peter rarely followed through on his threats.

“Yeah? I’d like to see you try,” he said, classic condescending snark returning to his tone. He turned back around, only taking one step before another voice spoke up.

“He’s a lot braver now, you know.”

Ted spun around on his heels, retort ready on the tip of his tongue when he saw his brother standing by his bed, a confident smirk on his face.

Ted’s own cocky smile faltered into something a bit more nervous. He took a step back, holding his hands out in front of him.

“Hang on now, Pete. W-wait!”

Peter cocked his head, like Ted had done so many times at him. Well shit.

“Why would I do that?”

Ted saw movement from the corner of his eye and noticed Steph also stand.

“Hey, I helped you!”

“Actually, I asked for a comprehensive list of his tickle spots, and IIII don’t knooow… that didn’t seem like a fully comprehensive list to me.”

That little bitch!

Ted scoffed, “Did you just use me to get your way?”

Steph wore a truly radiant smile. “Get used to it.”

Ted took another step back. “I had to leave you some surprises!” he defended himself, shrieking when Peter lunged at him. He just barely escaped when Peter caught him by the shirt, sprinting out of his grasp. His celebration was short lived when he was tackled to the ground.

“Oh Ted, I bet you thought this day would never come. But it’s about damn time you had a taste of your own medicine.”

He could never take what he dished out.

[its-a-rat-trap]

BOB GELDOF: OFFICIAL STATEMENT REGARDING CITIZENS OF BOOMTOWN

From The Pen of Bob Geldof:

My Fellow Citizens…

Time moves on alas and Boomtown needs to re-purpose its infrastructural modalities. That’s right Citizens we need to up-scale, downsize and re-position ourselves vertically but on a horizontally focussed axis to be better prepared online-sly speaking for the coming mega-celebratory 50th Boomtown Birthday.

The Citizens of Boomtown site and forum will shortly be seamlessly absorbed into the NEW BOOMTOWN SUPERSITE!! still giving you all the current extraordinary benefits of Citizenship, geeky discursive debating platforms but not really! Wow!!

Basically there’s no point in having two sites in effect doing the same thing so some maddened managerial time and motion efficiency freak begged Pete (blame him) to allow Mayor Jennifer and Techno buff Joke to “rationalise” our online presence, be slightly more professional (who? Us? The Rats? - you’re joking mate) and frankly get it together webbily-speaking. So…

COB is a great album but being released two days before lockdown, like a lot of things and people it got obstructed by Covid 19. So goodbye promotion, tour and what we had hoped would be a different route of approaching the band and music through a site or device where fans would be the same as the band in a shared experience of being Citizens of the “idea” of what Boomtown might be or could be and which, as a result become self-growing, outside of the band where the band and its members became irrelevant to the ongoing life of the site/idea/citizens. But still the background hum that united it all was the music coming out of that towering imaginary Ratopolis.

So feel free to jump in your leaky inflatable rubber dinghy, don your useless safety vest, pay a scumbag Rat-trafficker and migrate the tricky electric tides away from the doomed but forever beautiful city to the fun-lovin’, hip-swingin’, ga-roovey, ca-razey sunny uplands of brand new/old Ratland! That country where even the Rats roam free and zephyr winds carry wafts of gentle heavenly Ratmusik to all the green corners of its lush pastures. Where parliaments of citizens still carry on arcane esoteric deconstructive debates over the “true” meaning of “Do The Rat” and it’s global implications to the coming US elections particularly with regard to the swing states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin wherever the fuck that is.

So..thank you for all the fun of COB and hello to Ratsite 2. If you think it’s crap you’ll let us know and remember Pete is the one to blame..

Rat On..

BG xxx

[nighthaterfrfr]

Do you have any more headcanons/thoughts about your Steph and Max as half-siblings AU? :)

BRO IVE BEEN OK

ive been wanting to discuss this for so long but for ppl who want to know (mostly background)

-i think that max and steph share the same dad, he seems like the one to sleep around. however, he settled w steph's mother and a secretly pregnant max's mother ended up w his ass of a dad.

-for a while, maybe 13-14 years, they never knew about their relation to each other. however, max and steph definitely saw the other one in school. max was praised as a football prodigy and steph was infamous for being a slacking and skipping mayor's daughter.

-they look somewhat similar. from the nose, ears, eyes, hell even the hair? there are small differences here and there, but they were definitely called siblings by their classmates

-they were also quite good friends. apparently, once u find out both ur dads are assholes, u bond. max would invite her to all his football games and she somehowb goes. these two were best friends, practically inseparable.

-one day in 7th grade, solomon was complaining to ms tessburger abt his affair. steph was overhearing about how it's odd to see one of kids succeed at something, while the daughter he has is doing nothing of importance.

-like any teenage girl w a completely shitty relationship w her father, steph was enraged, and a bit jealous. finding out she was related to max unlocked a bit of a one-sided hating towards him

-max however, always knew that he had a sister. before his mom divorced, she told him stories abt his birth father, and how when she was with him, she had no idea solomon already had a girlfriend.

-she reached out to steph's mother and had informed her of what happened. however, since she couldn't get out of the marriage jst yet, her mother instead acknowledged and thanked max's mother.

-ofc, max's mom never told him who his sister was. knowing him and his father, she feared that sudden new relation between him and the mayor's daughter may get to his head. so, instead she jst told him that he had a sister in hatchetfield.

-from around mid 7th grade to early 8th grade, max noticed how whenever steph was forced into a group w him, she'd always looked pissed off. annoyed. generally angry.

-in the 8th grade during lunch, max came up to her table, asking "the hell is wrong w me??? we used to be close u fuckin', uh... DINGUS!" this offended the hell out of steph and she umped out of her seat and started to swing punches at max. as any middle school in america does, a bunch of students started recording and posting it.

-steph and max sat in the principal's office, both with a lot of bruises and some bloody hands and noses. as solomon lauter and jagerman's father walked in, both of them stared at each other. eventually, max's father got into a full blown yell w solomon.

-as the two kids watched their fathers yelled at one another, that was when steph turned to max and finally revealed why she was so distant. "apparently, ur my fucking brother or smth."

-max sighed, looking at steph w a disappointed glare. "im sorry for being.. ur brother, i guess?" he replied, the two laughing as he explained his side of the story, and further strained the relationship between steph and solomon

(alr onto actual headcanons)

-they do love joking abt being half-siblings around their friends. despite it being true, theyre all so confused on if either max or steph is lying or not.

-the first person for max who found out that his sister was steph was kyle. he couldn't rlly believe it, but he jst kinda vibed. so max telling him went rlly chill.

-on steph's side however, when pete found out she had max jagerman as a brother, she was immediately bombarded with questions and pleas from pete. she tried offering these ideas to max, but he dismissed them, telling her "i need to remain on top, steph!" secretly, he does go easier on the nerds. by a little bit.

-max and steph spend the most time together outside of home, more at school or wherever. whether its going bowling w max's teammates at some bowling lanes, or hanging out in the lakeside mall jst the two of them.

-neither of them ever had a proper enough relationship w their family, so spending time w each other relived them of that disappointing truth a little bit.

-one time, max got so pissed at steph he threw a football at her from like, 40 yards away in order to get her attention. unfortunately, steph being preoccupied on her phone did not notice the absolute perfect throw coming right into her head.

-safe to say, he apologized and ran to her, trying his best to relieve her of a bruise.

-because of this incident, steph had wanted to begin learning how to play football. max was her teacher, and he sucked at it. like, explaining anything to her was alien to steph. however, over time, she slowly got the hang of it, and was good to a point when max stopped teaching her

-sometimes after a nighthawk game, if u stay jst long enough, u can see steph and max throw a football at each other from pretty far. and if ur lucky, seeing steph trying to tackle max. but most of the time, that mostly leads to the funniest image of steph falling ever.

i have a lot more, but my ask IS open yall lmaoooo

[helladirections]

HOW DOES POLITICS WORK??

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING. I HAVE SEVERAL RANTS BELOW THE CUT:

Primaries are not necessarily real

There wasn't an official Dem nominee yet anyway

Line of succession doesn't really matter, but pipeline of talent does

1. Primaries are not necessarily real

Ok so we all know how the process appears. On your state's primary election day (different days for different states, annoyingly) you vote for who you want for president. The person with the most votes wins the state.

But here's what people don't always know...

Each state party has different rules about how delegates are assigned. Some give 100% to the winner of the popular vote, some go proportionally. But regardless, these delegates (who are also voted on as a super down ballot thing that most people don't pay attention to) go to the DNC convention where they do the official ballot. Think of this as the electoral college but just for the Dem Party. Each state has a number of votes, theoretically the popular vote guides how the delegates vote, but legally there is flexibility. PLUS, you might see some history or that Netflix biopic where you hear things like "releasing delegates" or "releasing delegates to...". What that means is a candidate who doesn't have enough delegates to win can "release" their delegates to vote for whoever they personally want, or whoever the candidate directs them to. "Multiple ballots" at a convention means that no one has enough delegates the first time and they have to vote again. And in between those votes the candidates and their teams make deals and discuss and ideally people drop out and release delegates.

So your vote in your state is incredibly important. But also. It might not be.

2. There wasn't an official Dem nominee yet anyway

As I explained above, the nominee is decided officially at the DNC convention. You saw the same type of system at the RNC this week. It wasn't until the last day of the convention that they did the official vote and Trump officially accepted the nomination from his party. Before that, there wasn't technically an official nominee yet. Legally. Procedurally. That's part of why it was so weird that they had a debate so early.

Similarly, the DNC hasn't happened yet, so there's not an official nominee either. Typically people don't run against an incumbent president though so it's mostly for show. Obviously, this year it won't be for show, and some of what I talked about in #1 will be relevant.

3. Line of succession doesn't really matter but pipeline of talent does

You may know that the VP takes over as President if the President dies. Next in line is the Speaker of the House, and then it goes down a long list. But Biden didn't die, he just isn't running for reelection and waited until the last minute to do that.

Biden did endorse Kamala. But that doesn't mean Kamala is definitely automatically the nominee. And there's no guarantee of who the VP candidate would be. It just means that she's the front runner and likely has access to the entire campaign infrastructure (including money) that Biden had.

So who else besides Kamala? It doesn't have to go by current position, which is why the line of succession doesn't really matter. It's the pipeline of talent - meaning who else is relevant doing good work and has name recognition. Some names that have been floated:

Gavin Newsom (CA Governor) Gretchen Whitmer (MI Governor) Pete Buttigieg (Mayor Pete, tranpo secretary, former candidate) And others

And names that people float but will never happen: Michelle Obama Hillary Clinton Nancy Pelosi Chuck Schumer etc.

So who's gonna run for president in November?

TBH probably Kamala because she has the biggest head start and those endorsements are powerful. She'll probably pick the most generic white man as her VP. But other people are likely to try and give it a go as well and it wont be official until the last day of the DNC

THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING ME TO VOMIT. I MISS DC AND IT'S NICE TO USE MY POLI SCI DEGREE FOR SOMETHING

[onyx-plutos-moon]

Insight into the Life of Spidey and her Nerd by me, originally posted on ao3

3,692 words, Spidey-Steph au, pre-relationship

Lauters were called a lot of things. Stubborn. Vain. Egotistical. Greedy. Many of those were true, along with so many other things whispered at political events or in the school halls. Many of them were also total fabrications. "Look at Solomon and his daughter, they look so happy" was never a true statement. The two couldn't spend more than a minute alone together before being at eachothers throats.

One thing that was definitely true was Lauters being territorial. Solomon held his position at the Mayor with an iron grip, sabotaging anyone who even thought about running against him. The position was his and his alone. He'd held it for as long as anyone could remember. And Stephanie, well...

Steph didn't think she had that trait of her father's until she got close to Pete.

Pete, who spent a few hours a week tutoring her. Pete, who never made her feel stupid for needing academic assistance. Pete, who's smile lit up a room and who's nerdy rambles kept Steph enthralled for hours. Pete, who wasn't hers.

And sure, he wasn't specifically anyone else's. He was a person, no one could own him!

But Steph wanted him as hers. And she wanted to be his.

Her little fantasies about the two of them pissed her off so much. The idea of going out for coffee after a study session, holding hands as they walked downtown to Beanies made her sick. Thoughts of running her fingers through his hair, pushing out of his eyes, tucking it behind his ear, god forbid braiding it. The thoughts made her skin crawl with want. The need to wrap an arm around his waist and take him through the town like Spider-Man. The want him kiss him like the Spider-Man kiss in the movie.

Want for some fucking nerd.

But he wasn't just some fucking nerd. He was Peter, future valedictorian. Peter, the guy haunted by rumors of his micropenis (Steph didn't believe that one) or how he jacked off in the bathroom during an exam (that one was too funny for her not to believe). Peter, who let her take breaks from studying when the words stopped appearing on the pages properly. Who stood outside with her when she needed a break to vape. She always offered him a hit and every time he declined. Peter, who was so kind and sweet and caring and fucking perfect. And who wasn't fucking hers.

She wasn't sure when the want to protect him from harm (Max) became the want for him. Maybe when she got her first C plus in a class that wasn't shop. Maybe it was when she'd crawled through his window in the middle of the night, ready to come out to him (as Spider-Man) because she trusted him. Maybe it was earlier. The Pasquallis carpark? When she'd first asked for his help?

Not like it mattered. He was either not interested or socially stupid on a level that matched her academics.

They sat on Steph's bedroom floor, a pile of thrifted clothes between them. Steph was stitching a line of blue down the sleeve of a red hoodie they'd found earlier that day. Pete's focus was on the old canvas shoe he was painting, red and blue and black slowly taking over the dirty white of the shoe.

"Thanks again for helping with this shit, Pete."

"It's fine, honestly I do this a lot." She raised an eyebrow at him, urging him to continue. "Ruth and Richie are both into cosplay so every Halloween we make our costumes together."

Steph felt a twinge of jealous. It was stupid. Ruth and Richie were Pete's best friends, of course he'd do things like this with them. It's not like making a costume together was their thing anyway.

"That's so geeky- fuck-" The needle stabbed into the pad of her finger, just enough to draw blood. She glared at the small dot of red before shoving it in her mouth. Pete snorted. "Fuck off-"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You okay, Steph?" He gave her a soft smile. She knew he was just asking to make her feel better, she'd told him all about her insanely high pain tolerance. It was cute.

She nodded, giving him a smile. Or the best rendition of one she could give with a finger in her mouth.

"Good. Can't have a superhero die on me. Then I'd need to get radiation poisoning to get powers so I can avenge your death."

"You're such a fucking dork, Spankoffski." Steph paused and finally took in what the boy across from her was wearing. Summer was slowly approaching, it was getting warmer, and this nerd was still in his slacks and a button up. How was he not dying from the heat? "... yknow you can dress down when we hang out, right?"

"You sure? Won't you miss the bowt-"

"Yeah I don't want my sidekick, like, dying because he got too hot."

The room was dead silent for a few moments. Pete wouldn't meet her eyes, spinning the pen across his fingers. It was a nervous habit of his. She'd seen him do it when he was stuck on his English essays.

God, she just fucked this all up. Pete probably owned his outfit in fabrics appropriate for any weather condition. His pants were probably linen, same with his shirt. Fuck, he was so nerdy he probably had ties in different fabrics for each season.

"Sorry, you don't have t-"

"- You sure it's okay if I dress down?" The pen dropped from his hand as the last word left his mouth. "I- I have something on under my shirt and-"

"You could start stripping and it'd be fine." Steph said without thinking. She honestly wouldn't mind if he undressed in front of her. In her room. But she'd mind it if things didn't get more than platonic. Besides, that probably wasn't the best thing to calm Pete's nerves about unbuttoning his shirt in front of her.

But he laughed. He heard her stupid comment and laughed. Pale fingers pulled the edge of the bowtie and it fell open (because of course he tied them every morning. That's such a Pete thing to do). He moved to undo the buttons and Steph watched, mesmerized. She was stitching blind, barely avoiding stabbing herself again as she watches Pete unbutton his shirt.

After the third button, the collar of a tan undershirt came into view. It sat tight across his chest. How often did Pete work out? How did he have time when he was tutoring her?

Halfway down the shirt she realized it wasn't a singlet or anything. It was a binder. No wonder he'd been nervous. His stomach was soft, he was paler under his shirt than Steph has assumed. Not that she imagined him shirtless a lot (okay, she did).

"... Steph..?"

Fuck she was staring.

She snapped her eyes down towards the needle in her hand. The point was in her palm. Fuck.

".. You're not.."

"No I'm not a transphobe, I just-" Just what? Thought he had huge pecs for a second? Imagining taking his clothes odd herself? Realized she was way more into him than she thought? Get it together Lauter. "You look good like that. Should be your new look, then I don't have to worry about my dear tutor dying from heat stroke."

Good save, Steph.

"Thanks Steph." She looked up to find him smiling so, so fucking softly at her.

 

Spankoffskis had garnered an interesting reputation over the years. Pete's mother was a kindergarten teacher, his dad sold women's shoes. Most of the reputation came from Ted. A drunk. A sleaze. A pervert.

He wasn't all bad. He knew his reputation and lived up to it. He'd hit on every married woman in Hatchetfield. At least once Pete had yelled at him for hitting on his classmates (Ted apologized and remembered which people were Petes age. He may be a creep but he wasn't that bad). And Pete did everything to stop that reputation reaching him.

Pete was studious. He got good grades, he didn't party or do drugs. He tried to fly under the social radar. His choice of friends didn't stop people from thinking he was a pervert, but sometimes there's only two people who would talk to you in freshman year and you become best friends out of necessity.

He just hoped none of that would push Steph away. And it didn't.

Sure, she mocked the shit out of him when she remembered the rumors of Pete leaving an exam to jerk off, but there was no malice to it.

"Smash."

"That's gay, Steph."

"She's played by Sophie Thatcher. You saying you wouldn't hit that if you could?"

"This feels like a trap-"

They were curled up on the couch in Pete's living room, his laptop connected to the TV. His family didn't have a smart TV, the Spankoffski's had seen one too many movies about AI taking over, so it had taken twenty minutes to get YouTube on the screen. Another five was spent on Steph buying the movie she wanted to watch. Some new release she'd seen with Stacy and Brenda.

"So she's not your type. Okay... what about him?"

"I didn't say she wasn't my type-"

She immediately cut him off. "Fucking knew it! She's fucking hot."

"They're movie stars, of course they're attractive." He sighed. Maybe agreeing to a movie night was a bad idea. At least with Ruth and Richie, talking about character 'fuckability' was less nerve wracking. Mostly because he was convinced his friends were monster fuckers.

The movie played on. The main couple arrived at a super rich dudes house, the girl best friend hates the main character, she's also a robot. A robot who did murder against her programming.

Thwip

A web hit the knee of his pants, a string of white connected to it, leading back to Stephs hand. She didn't say anything, didn't spare him a glance before tugging on the web. His knee perked towards her, turning him to the side so suddenly that he nearly fell off the couch.

"The fuck, Ste-"

Steph gave him a small smile before pulling a blanket from where it was draped over the back of the couch. He watched in confusion as Steph shuffled completely into his space, shoulder just about pressed into his chest, legs over his own. The blanket gets placed over their laps before she shuffles again, leaning against him.

Every muscle in his body was tense. She wanted to be this close to him. Basically sitting on his lap. Nearly cuddling. Maybe he should worry more about having a heart attack than hypoglycemia.

"Relax Pete, I'm not planning to bite."

This sort of things wasn't new to him. Ruth and Richie were ridiculously clingy, constantly grabbing onto his arm or trying to climb over him (even Richie, who was less than an inch shorter than him). Physical affection like this wasn't new to him.

But it's Steph who was giving it.

She shuffled again, resting her head against his shoulder. Her cheeks were just redder than normal. He could feel how she was holding back from putting her full weight on him.

Maybe she was just as nervous as he was.

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into him just enough that she relaxed against him.

"I could totally take that little bitch in a fight."

"Even if you were a robot?"

"Well, maybe I'd find you in the woods and you could fuck with my programming so I can shoot him."

 

The Lauters had a lot of things going for them. Money, good bone structure, money, high social standings, money. Was money mentioned? Yeah they have money.

Steph brought good spirits for parties (too good to be mixed with so much other shit but at least it was strong). She paid for her friends movie tickets and coffees if they went out. She knew she was a trust fund baby, she may as well make use of her father's money before she gets her trust fund and moves out.

An outdoor projector so Pete and his friends could have an outdoor movie night barely made a dent.

Steph stood before her full length mirror, double checking her outfit. It wasn't like she needed to stress about looking good, but she wanted to make a good impression. Ruth and Richie meant a lot to Pete and by God did she want them to like her.

A dark beanie kept her hair off her face, the black zip up hoodie engulfing her form. She can't quite remember who she stole it from, but she bet was Kyle. A cropped top that did fuck all but cover her bra probably wasn't the best choice but it'd probably make Ruth happy. Plus she felt hot in it.

She stuffed her phone into the pocket of her ripped jeans before webbing it shut, webbing the small projector into her other pocket. She wasn't going to risk losing those.

She hesitated before tugging on the shoes Pete helped her decorate. It felt dumb but those were her favourite shoes now. One final look in the mirror to recheck her outfit then Steph was climbing out the window. These powers made it so much easier to sneak out of the house.

The cool evening breeze was enough to make her zip up her hoodie from where she was half hanging out of her bedroom window, one knee hooked over the ledge so her hands were free.

She planted a hand firmly on the wall next to the window before pulling her leg out. Carefully, she slid the window shut, flicking a web to keep it secure.

Hatchetfield wasn't tall enough to make swinging places worth it. Steph's had a lot of near misses with the pavement. The only buildings tall enough for web slinging were St Damiens and the CCRP office building. Hospitals were big but CCRP was a fucking eyesore in the towns skyline. It was at least four stories taller than every other building on the island. She'd love to use it to practice webslinging but being too close to the building gave her a headache (Pete called it her Spidey Sense).

She'd only had a near miss with a tree on her way to Pete's, which Steph called a mission success. Nothing had falled out of her pockets, her beanie hadn't fallen off. She leaped from rooftop to rooftop before finally stopping on Pete's roof.

She leaned over the edge, reaching towards Pete's window before flicking her wrist, shooting a web. She wrapped the pale white thread around her hand before tugging. The window slid open as Steph shimmed off the roof and onto the wall.

"-id to be here at eight. It's eight now, Pete! Why isn't she here?"

"She's popular, Ruth. Being on time is probably different."

"But she's late!"

The voices of Ruth and Richie met her ears. Fuck. She was here on time.

Fuck, the nerds show up to things early.

She needed to think fast. It would be easy to drop into the yard and text that she was there, but they'd see the web residue. But she opened the window. They'd notice it. She had to close i-

"Hey when did the window open? I-its cold, Pete. What the fuck?" Richie spoke, his head and horrifically mismatched outfit coming into her view.

Fuck.

Steph tried to backtrack, crawling backwards until her shoe hits the gutter with a crack. Richies head snapped up, his eyes locked on her. He blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes, squinting. Steph hoped he'd walk away to try process what he was seeing.

".... Pete, your girlfriends on the wall."

"She's not m- FUCK!"

Ruth dashed forward, crashing into the windowsill with the momentum. "HOLY FUCK, PETE YOU'RE DATING SPIDER-MAN!?"

 

Pete pushed his way past Ruth and Richie, reaching out the window to help Steph in. Flecks of paint met his skin as his hand grasped Stephs.

"Oh my god, you're a real life superhero!"

"Do you think the X gene is real?"

"Spider-Mans not an x-men?"

"This is a real mutation... We should study her, see how t-"

"Neither of you are studying Steph." Pete's voice broke into their discussion, Stephs hand still in his. Ruth huffed before realizing she'd been talking about turning the Mayor's daughter into an observational lab rat in front of her. Her face when bright red as she shuffled to hide behind Richie. The taller of the two just groaned before pulling his phone out of one of his many pockets, likely back to scrolling Eren Jaegers character wiki.

"So this is more like a Saiki K situation then? You don't want anyone to know so you don't get t-taken and experimented on?" He glanced up at Pete, too nervous to meet Stephs eye, before looking back at his phone. "If so, you're being a- a real baka about this."

"I'm not a fucking baka-" Steph snapped, her grip on Pete's hand tightening.

"No just- three people know you have Spider-Mans powers, at the very least. That's such a baka move, now a supervillain can use us to get to you!"

"God, there's no fucking supervillians in Hatchetfield, it's f-"

"Okay, how about we set up for a movie-" Pete said, moving to take down some of his posters as the argument continued behind him. He just wanted a good night, one good night where all his friends got along and it was turning to shit. Posters were gently places atop other posters until he'd cleared a large chunk of the wall, revealing white paint. Perfect movie screen. He took a deep breath before zoning back into what was happening.

"-drop the subject, I'm going to wedgie you so hard you'll fucking die, I swear to-"

"Don't bully me!"

"You're being invasive! No fucking wonder no one talks to you guys!" Steph snapped. "This shit is why no one likes you."

The silence that followed was deafening. Richies eyes dropped to the floor, hands shoved under his armpits, biting his lip so hard it looked painful. Tears filled Ruth's eyes, threatening to break past her lashes.

Pete wanted to do something. Comfort his best friends. Calm Steph down. Fix everything. But he couldn't. He couldn't move, couldn't speak.

"I- I'm sorry I didn't mean- Ruth, Richie, I didn't mean t-"

"I hate you." Ruth whispered before tears started falling down her cheeks.

"Ruth-"

"I- I hate you.." She managed again before shuffling out of the room. Richie met Pete's eyes before rushing after her. He didn't blame either of them for how they reacted. Maybe none of them cared that people didn't like them, but it hurt to hear.

A tense silence flooded the room again, threatening to drown Pete and Steph. Slowly, so careful not to spook her, Pete took her hand. Her palm stuck to his like glue.

"I- I didn't- fuck..."

"Give them time, okay?" He whispered, squeezing her hand. "They- we aren't the greatest socially.... You're a real life superhero, Steph, of course they're excited. Sometimes that can come off really judgementally..."

"They hate me now... fuck, I'm so sorry..."

"It's not your fault. I know they can be a lot, they're my best friends.... why don't we reschedule tonight? They're definitely going to want an apology, and I think they're too worked up for a movie..."

"I just go? Pete, I hurt her, I hurt-"

"And they're going to need space from you for a bit. This- it's fixable." Steph didn't look convinced. "I've seen Richie and Ruth have worse fights."

He felt an arm wrap around him, Stephs hand avoiding contant with him. With his free hand, he hugged back, cheek pressed against the top of her head.

"...... would buying them an apology gift be rude?"

"Steph-"

"I'm rich, Pete. Would... is there like.. I'm not trying to buy their forgiveness but-"

"I can ask them about it..... I'll be honest, Ruth might use you to get a dildo-"

Steph snickered at that, slowly peeling her hand away from his. "Good thing I'm eighteen, then. I'll text you tomorrow.. Let me know if they're okay, okay?"

"I will." And with that, Steph walks over to the window, climbing out of his room as Pete went to find which bathroom Ruth and Richie had claimed sanctuary in.

 

The week after hurt. Of course it hurt, Steph lost one of her closest friends.

Maybe not lost, but their routine had changed and Steph hated it. They'd only met up at the library once to actually study. No Beanies trips, no walks downtown. What they had before was good and she'd fucked it up.

She didn't know how long she'd been staring down at her textbook, diagrams of cell membranes blurring in her vision. Before Pete, she didn't know where her textbooks were.

"Steph?" The worry in his voice snapped her out of whatever trance she'd been in. Her head shot up, eyes locking with Pete's before she glanced away. The slight furrow in his brows was too cute. That'd be the next target of her zoned out stare if she wasn't careful.

His fingertips grazed the top of her hand and she could feel the pen she was holding start to stick to her hand. The sound of plastic cracking filled the air as Pete rested his hand over hers.

"Would you be up for re-trying the movie night?" She didn't respond, she couldn't. Ruth and Richie probably still hated her, why would they want to try agai- "It's Ruth and Richies idea. I think they want a Spider-Man movie marathon so they can ask about your abilities... You don't have to agree to this, by the way."

"They want to talk to me?"

"I think they want to use you for online shopping during the movie, but yeah."

She couldn't help but laugh at that. "Okay, okay. But what time am I supposed to show up, because we have different ideas of what on time is."

[allthecastlesonclouds]

Fantasy high and hatchetfield crossover never gets old! Can we hear your thoughts about it?

of course!!

so. in hatchetfield canon when hannah foster is born, the Lords in Black are pulled close enough to reality to start fucking with things. the same thing happens with Adaine.

the first thing that gets fucked with is Tinky messing around with people's ages. adaine's age does not get fucked with. everyone else's ABSOLUTELY does. thankfully she is the youngest of all of them in this world. for my sanity.

the original timeline ages (let's say adaine's 18): riz, fig, gorgug are all 18, kristen is 19, fabian and ayda are 20 (fabian was held back in school, ayda did not attend public education. on account of the witchery)

it's. unclear what's the first timeline at this point. everything happens at once. everything follows each other. adaine's head hurts constantly

they can only escape in universes/timelines that have a strong similarity to the original one! this is why they manage to escape in the lovely "fig kills an entire theatre of people" timeline (o7) and not when, say, adaine and riz are ten and the rest of them are full adults.

in more than a couple universes, the luckstones crash on a drive to visit family in clivesdale and penny is adopted by mayor goldenhoard

(she misses having a sibling. she and riz haven't talked since the accident.)

(^ at least one of these universes is nerdy prudes must die) (penny's steph, riz's pete, klck's grace, mary ann's richie, zelda's ruth, ragh's max) (adaine's reese; lucy's pj) (to get the LiB to take out max, kip kills lucy)

some of TBK have very Shifting parts in the story– a fig who is suddenly in her thirties and doesn't have any memory of success or friends won't jump back into trying to make music. she's gonna go get a job at the coffee shop downtown. they're all in tinky's toybox and he likes to see how they all respond to different traumas :D

aelwyn got out in about half the universes. in about half of that half she managed to be able to take adaine with her. in a couple universes she went to jail with arianwen. in more than a couple they're still both living with her

bill seacaster's roman murray :) fabian has no underlying mental issues :)

kristen takes uncle wiley's place in most universes. tracker's john mcnamara :D they're divorced :D

(jawbone's hidgens. his mental state varies depending on the timeline)

tracker does not feel great about shooting her ex girlfriend who she definitely doesn't still have feelings for. definitely.

riz, so far, has never been The Villain. he does die in Most Universes, though, as his younger self or his older self or both! :D

riz is all the spankoffskis and also tim

sandra lynn/sklonda is canon in at least five universes :)

i'm so so normal about all of them. thank you so much for the ask!! i. i love talking about the guys :)

ask me about my aus on this very normal day!

[agentravensong]

two scenes i would add to nerdy prudes must die

the thing about being autistic is that i will have no motivation to sit down and write stuff for my grad school applications all day, but then at night i'll find it in me to spend 3+ hours writing a tumblr post about my latest hyperfixation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

this time that hyperfixation is nerdy prudes must die, a show that, despite still not being my favorite starkid hatchetfield musical, has really dug its claws into me. i'm gonna detail two scenes that i think would add to certain character arcs, give ritchie (and ruth)'s death(s) more impact, and really drive home the show's themes. don't think i need much more preamble than that, so, here we go!

1. Second Lauter family scene

A scene set between Ritchie's death and Ruth's, fitting best in the plot as is right after "Hatchet Town".

Primary purpose: Show more of Steph's character and her relationship with her father; show that the attitudes that made the teens' high school experience hell (pre-ghost!max) are reinforced by the adults

Basic outline: Steph and her dad are having a convo, prompted by the mayor, about how school is going; a kind of convo that, with how awkward it is, clearly doesn't happen often. Lauter says something half-hearted about how it's a shame her high school experience is being ruined by these events, because it was the happiest time of his life (as a contrast to the opinions our protags express in the opening number).

Steph doesn't want to talk about the murder stuff (duh) so she redirects to how her grades have genuinely improved (or at least did for a minute there) thanks to her studying with Pete, in a way that makes it clear she's genuinely proud of her improvement.

Mayor Lauter, in response, tells her that he doesn't want her hanging out with the nerds anymore, in or out of school, because it makes her a target (and also a suspect).

Steph gets upset at this dismissal; what kind of dad, she scoffs, would tell their daughter who was finally succeeding academically to stop trying? Especially when he was the one who told her to get her grades up?

And Mayor Lauter says something to the effect of, "You don't need to be a star student. I know you, Stephanie; that's never going to be you. All you need to be is good enough. Can you just do that for me?"

We have the mayor leave at this point; let's say he gets a phone call, cause that makes sense, and also is a deeply ironic reason for him to leave a family conversation considering his criticism of Steph's phone use. Steph could even point that out as a joke.

Here is where, if we have time, we give Steph a solo number. Well, it could be a solo, or it could be a duet with her dad — the kind where they're not singing to each other or aware that the other is singing, but they're basically singing their different perspectives on the same thing (in this case, their relationship). I propose the duet version because Corey deserves to get to show off his vocals more prominently in these shows.

Alternate ending if we're not doing the song: Steph can storm out, and the mayor can have an ominous line foreshadowing the drastic measures he'll be taking when we see him again.

The idea with this scene is that I want to give more weight to the whole "she's smarter than she thinks she is" angle to Steph's character. Show that she has found something through her bond with the nerds (Pete mainly) that makes her want to be more than just the "cool girl". And show that there is a part of her that wants a better relationship with her father (because if he won't believe in her, be proud of her, then who will?).

But also, we see how her dad has pigeonholed her into being that kind of airhead. All he cares about is that she stays out of trouble (which is to say, anything that would cause trouble for him). He doesn't care what she's genuinely interested in, what she aspires to; he's spent most of her teenage-hood assuming she's not interested in anything worthwhile, that she doesn't aspire to anything. He doesn't see her as a full person.

And, perhaps most importantly, him telling her not to associate with the nerds draws a direct line between him and our main antagonist, Max. Which matters for reasons that will become clearer as I discuss the second additional scene I came up with.

For the record, if I only got to add one of these scenes (NPMD is the longest of the Hatchetfield shows already, and both these scenes would have to be Act 2 additions), I'd pick this next one. So let's get to it.

2. High School Regression scene

Primary purpose: Showing how the murder(s) has/have affected the student body, and making the point that the hierarchies Max represented can't be disposed of that easily when he's still, literally and metaphorically, haunting the place.

This one would happen in between when the protags find out about Ritchie's death and when Grace informs Pete and Steph of Ruth's death. Practically, this means it would have to be set either:

A) right before Ruth goes to the BBQ Monologues rehearsal, with the scene centering around her, and leading directly into her arrival there (maybe replacing the cop convo entirely? maybe they're at the end of it)

or B) as basically a replacement for the Beanie's scene, but still leading into "If I Loved You" (and everything that comes after)

The beat-by-beat for this one is less solid in my head compared to the first scene, but the idea is that we see some of the cheerleaders and jocks going back to bullying Ruth in version A or Pete in version B (though in a less confident and malicious manner than Max did, as if their hearts aren't fully in it). Ruth or Pete gives some pushback and asks what changed to make them revert to this behavior.

I'm not sure how exactly the bullies express the "why", but in plain-speak, it's this: the students know about Ritchie (and Ruth)'s murder(s), and, maybe more importantly, the "nerdy prudes must die" that was written in Richie's blood. The message they've taken from that is that there is a killer reinforcing the social hierarchies they all abandoned when Max died. And so, with that latent threat hanging in the air, these students have decided to fall in line, in the hopes that they'll therefore be spared. Maybe, even, the murders will stop.

(you could also have one or two kids who are genuinely almost as cruel as max and are using this as an excuse to going back to being the assholes they were before, but you'd need more proper set-up for such a character i think)

Version A is pretty straightforward. I like the idea of Pete and/or Steph being there as well so it isn't just Ruth experiencing the misery (considering where things go from here)... but I know that they need to be dressed as different characters for when Ruth gets to the auditorium, so that probably isn't practical. Maybe there'd be time for Mariah to have made that quick change if Joey really stretched out his bit? But I know the change was tight even for Angela as is.

For version B, you could have the bullies find Steph and Pete at or on their way to Beanie's and be assholes to them there (because it makes sense to me that Steph and Pete would want to have their potentially incriminating conversation off high school grounds), but I think it has more thematic punch to set it in the high school.

Wherever it's set, in version B, Steph and Pete talk a bit about how the bullies' regression sucks, how things are even worse now than they were before Max died, which then leads into their conversation as it is in the actual show over whose fault this all is.

With Pete specifically, I think it'd be neat to call back to what he said to Steph way back in the show about his desire to blend in, to be invisible. That maybe, for a little bit, he liked being accepted, being important (to one person in particular), but it wasn't worth it. And with Steph, if we do have the second dad convo in this version of the show, we can maybe have her comment on how even her dad seems to believe in this bullshit social hierarchy, how they might never escape it.

I mentioned in my post detailing my initial nerdy prudes thoughts that I wished Pete and Steph had a convo that felt like Paul and Emma's convo right before "Join Us and Die". Basically, this is my attempt to give these teens that, without adding an entirely new scene just for that.

As a whole, this scene is my best attempt to Make Something of the themes and plot threads that are so well set up but get kind of lost in the last... third? of the show. Plenty of people have rightly posted that the adults are the real villains of this story. Max isn't scary just because he's one guy; he's representative of larger ideas, a larger system, perpetuated by those adults. Hierarchy, competition, and domination, treated as the natural, necessary state of the world. A system that reduces the personhood of all those ensnared in it.

Those ideas won't just disappear with his death. Max might have peaked in high school even if he lived because of the specific brand of boisterous asshole he was, but the world that instilled those ideas in him, the world beyond high school, will keep fostering and enforcing them, in its more mundane, subtle (comparatively) ways. It will keep producing more Maxs, and more Solomon Lauters.

Like, the whole "fuck clivesdale" bit is a running joke, and a funny one! But, also, I think there's something to be said about the fact that both the teens and adults are all in on this seemingly one-way rivalry, and how much focus is placed on it, in a show about *bullying*. A show about people who have arbitrary labels slapped on them as an excuse to be cruel to them.

"you're fucking losers, and we'll kill you!" isn't that far off as a sentiment from "nerdy prudes must die", is it?

and, like. their team name is the clivesdale chemists. chemists, like, nerds. it's supposed to be part of the joke, i'm pretty sure, that they're named after something nerdy, not a cool animal. if that parallel isn't intentional, then, i dunno man. it's still there either way.

(see also: the musical motif underneath the "who will pray for me" section of nerdy prudes must die also appearing as the chorus of "hatchet town". a motif that plays both when max asks ritchie who will remember him (who will remember *them*), right before enacting his ultimate "justice", and when the adults twist their memories into an excuse for a witch hunt, their own paranoid search for "justice".)

In real life, getting rid of the one asshole at the top of a rotten system doesn't fix the system. If the non-nerdy teens in this school were impressionable enough that one asshole could make them all act in line with his arbitrary beliefs, then his haunting presence (even if they don't know it's literally his ghost) should absolutely have *some* effect on them too.

And I think if you included a scene like this, it would make all that stuff in the script that's subtext, or half-developed, feel like it really was intentional, purposeful.

Does that all make sense? I hope so.

I know that actually trying to fit both of these into the show would require cutting some other stuff down for time, and it would complicate scene transitions and maybe fuck with the overall pacing. Really, this is more a thought experiment than anything else. I'm just glad to have it out of my head after it's been brewing there for multiple days, There's other stuff I'd change if I were to do a full edit of the script, sure, but these are the big things that really would've made the show click for me on the level tgwdlm does.