#Web story

[valician]

Finally, 90's Kid art of the Royal Valley mall. Always wanted to show this place off in the series, but the city, theme park, and school kinda took priority. Definitely a staple of the 90's kid and teen scene!`

[principlethoughtsandnovels]

sunday, october 6 - finding the love you deserve, with others

Closing their journal, Kingston sighed as their eyes immediately fell back onto the burned cup of noodles, its singed bottom scowling back at them in detest. Most of the lights have been kept off, now including the kitchen, meaning that the apartment is solely illuminated by the warm yellow of their banker lamp at the side of their desk, its low power only brightening a small vicinity around them. It was cold in New York, and Kingston decided that if they were going to spend an egregious amount of money on their heating bill, they could cut costs when it came to their other appliances.

Dropping their pencil in an old mason jar riddled with ink splotches, Kingston pushed their chair away from the desk and forced themselves to get up, swaying on their feet for a few seconds before knocking their knees against their bed, letting their body fall onto the semi-soft material with a quiet thump. It was getting too late even for their standards, and they wondered if they could force themselves to fall asleep before their 8 o-clock alarm.

Tomorrow wasn’t their first day of work—they have been at this publishing agency for about two weeks now, so their co-workers had garnered an impression of them already. But should they risk avoiding punctuality, staining their impression so early? How stable was their current reputation?

Sighing, they shut their eyes, pulling their knees to their chest and hugging them aggressively, cursing themselves to sleep for just a few hours and enough to function their body, tomorrow.

However their track record for previous nights have been treacherous, and Kingston had long ago accepted that consistent, restful sleep was a concept unbeknown to them.

Aggressively puffing out a breath, Kingston pulled out their phone.

It took a few seconds before a response.

They snickered, sighing gently at the message. Princess had always been the only person to truly make Kingston laugh. Many people missed that note, throwing around jabs and humors that either fell flat or fell on their nerve, offending more than it ever could humor. It was partially Kingston’s fault; most people were simply unfunny in their eyes, and part of that could be eased if Kingston broadened and lightened their sense of humor. But, instead, cynical comedy was the only humorous region Kingston acknowledged, and Princess had been able to produce it ever since she had spoken her first word, when Kingston was six and Princess was one, and their mother was sitting just out of ear-sight. Now, Princess just calls their humor edgy and weird and Kingston snickers at that as well.

Kingston could immediately imagine their sisters’ eyes rolling at this.

Their white mug was still spinning under the warm white light of their kitchen microwave, and Kingston wondered if they should go grocery shopping soon. Their company provides company meals, so if they ordered a bigger meal, they could just eat it for lunch and dinner. Figuring out those logistics over spending money on groceries that they would potentially let spoil sounded like the better solution, and the one that did not require them to stay outside of their apartment longer.

It was all so odd, contemplating those logistics, getting frustrated over lack of sleep, caring so much about their first impression two weeks later—when did these things begin to matter? When did life becoming fine-tuning every aspect of your body and character, so you act presentable, rather than just be it? Was it like this when they were a teenager? Even when they were struggling to decipher their identity in their youth, it didn’t feel like this; back then, it was a fight, now, it’s a tussle, and Kingston never feels like they’re winning.

The screaming beep of their microwave yanked Kingston out of their internal monologue, making them jolt up from their lean against the counter and rush to pull open the microwave door, praying that the milk didn’t spill over. Thankfully, the continents remained in the cup, and Kingston immediately lifted the hot beverage to their lips and took a sip, sputtering and pulling back when it burnt their tongue. They created some distance, stared at the white liquid, and then started to blow on it, not even allowing themselves to be annoyed at their incompetence.

Falling back onto their bed, they pulled out their phone once again and opened their messages to Princess.

Chuckling, they took another sip of their drink, hoping it would slowly help lull them to sleep.

---

kingston's journal entry--october 6th: https://www.tumblr.com/kingstonofthekingdom/771260371812106240/sunday-october-6th?source=share

[numberlover1729]

it'll make sense in 15,743 years

gonna fuck around and make the NFL watchable

[kingstonofthekingdom]

monday, october 7th

dear journal,

i’m pretty sure the concealer i wore to work did nothing to cover my eye bags. saw myself on the monitor during a zoom x in-person meeting and i look like i just found out my relative died a horrible., tragic death the night before.

i was able to get some sleep. the last time i checked my phone before my 8 am alarm was 4:19 am so it wasn’t the worst, but i guess still evident.

the account coordinator for this client was speaking today and i can’t say anything negative about it—i was genuinely in awe. his name is priestly alekseev, and he is the most eloquent speaker i have ever heard, and the quickest thinking. every time someone had a problem, he has a solution, and this was the most organized a morning meeting had ever been in the two weeks i have been here. i know that is not saying a lot.

i’m about to head back home now. i finished the last thing assigned to me today and hope my co-workers don’t invite me to go to the local bar. i fear I’ll make an absolute fool out of myself. i fear that because it is bound to happen.

i am going to stop by the closest bodega to my apartment, though. i want carbonara buldak and mango lassi.

those are my thoughts,

kingston.

[the-journey-cleo-tjc]

T.J.C. pt. 24: The Calling Flowers.

Where do the flowers call them to? Only time might tell.

[and-corn]

nothing like a good stretch for the first time in centuries

(Part 2 of this comic!)

[ruporas]

trigunned the hades or hadesed the trigun (id in alt)

[valician]

The 90′s Kid chapter forty-eight through fifty! The three part finale!

s3.e16.Nostalgic_Zenith – Everything wraps up with a big to-do list… culminating in that promised class trip to the theme park!

s3.e17.Moribund_Animus – The big-bad reveals himself, and an epic combative introspection ensues as King Arcade crumbles.

s3.e18.Onward_Hereafter – Even the nicest weekends end.

Read them right here: 90skidstory.com

The cast page has also been updated with the latest characters.

I'm not quite done yet - I still have the Season 3 album art and soundtrack to create.

A big thanks to my readers, whoever you are, whether you just like slice of life, time travel, or fun stories. Or you wanted to relive a little of the 90s. This was a personal project and I hope the characters felt alive and even relatable to the kids you grew up with. This is more a story about nostalgia and childhood than any particular decade, though the the 1990s certainly gave it a unique flavor. From challenging myself like using a 22 page restriction per chapter to simulate TV show episodes, or improving my illustration abilities these last 4 years (July 18th 2019 to July 18th 2023!), and adapting real-life experiences into the "epic" moments seen through a kid's eyes, this series has been a joy to write, and I think it's fully stuffed with gooey comfort food nostalgia for a decade long gone without quite going overboard, and it explores the connections in the present we have with the past — while mentioning that the ticking now isn't all bad! There are always nice new things to look forward to, and friends to make.

When I began writing back in 2018, the pandemic wasn't even a blip on the radar and 2020 was still the future (and now it's hard to believe it's already 3 years in the past!). While that global event not showing up in The 90's Kid meant pushing the universe into an even further branching timeline than our own, some of the chapters I most enjoyed writing were with Jace and his friends in an alternate version of 2020. And while millennials and older generations might find the things kids are into these days "cringe" and "trash," remember that your parents probably thought the same things about what we grew up with a few decades ago. So, don't worry about today's youth. They're going to turn out fine, and in thirty years, I bet a lot of them will long for those "awesome" 20s Kid days. And some of them might even still be wearing their Nirvana shirts, too. Like a churning ocean current, nostalgia is about cycles, and you never know what might come back to the surface again.

Still, as Wes learns... dial down the tint on those rose-colored glasses a little, and try to live in the present. Old stories are great; but you should be there to help write the new ones.

[mirefireflies]

“the ending is always the same”

war of the foxes - richard siken / waterloo - ABBA / euripides’ medea - the little theatre / anne carson / the three fates - luca cambiaso / the oresteia - aeschylus / road to hell II - hadestown / when i met you - mira lightner / andersen’s fairy tale anthology

[kingstonofthekingdom]

sunday, october 6th

dear journal,

i should have really taken mom seriously when she told me to learn how to cook.

i’m staring at a plastic cup of MaruchanTM, right now and somehow, i burnt the bottom.

i’ve lived alone before—not completely, but without the supervision of my parents—and for some reason i feel less equipped for it now than I did back then, freshly 18 and in my first year of college.

that being said, the dining hall made all my food, so i never had to hover in my kitchen andstare at a burnt cup of cup noodles after almost setting off the fire alarm at one in the morning.

i hope my neighbors don’t hate me already.

those are my thoughts,

kingston. 

[the-star-rigel]

pjo/hoo/toa + the cycle

The Lightning Thief / Growing Sideways, Noah Kahan / Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan, Ilya Repin + Saturn Devouring His Son, Goya + Saturn, Rubens / The Blood of Olympus / The Family Jewels, MARINA / The Last Olympian / The Sea of Monsters / The Family Jewels / Orestes Pursued by the Furies, Bouguereau / The Hidden Oracle / Apollo and Marsyas, Manfredi / In The Blood, John Mayer / The Sea of Monsters / The Combat of Ares and Athena, Jacques Louis David / The Family Jewels / Mark of Athena / The Combat of Ares and Athena / The Lightning Thief / Family Line, Conan Gray / Cronos and Rhea, Schinkel / The Lightning Thief / The Blood of Olympus / In The Blood / The Last Olympian / Chronos and His Child, Romanelli / Desireé Dellagiacomo / The Lightning Thief / Family Line / The Fallen Angel, Alexandre Cabanel + The Last Day of Pompeii, Bryullov / The Blood of Olympus / The Outcast, Botticelli / Glass, Irony and God, Anna Carson / House of Hades / Family Line / The Last Olympian / The Lament for Icarus, Herbert Draper + Sacrifice of Iphigenia, Roman School + Minerva and Arachne, Houasse + Venus Induces Helen to Fall in Love with Paris, Kauffmann / The Last Olympian / Hadestown / The Lightning Thief / apple, Charli xcx / The Last Olympian / I Would Leave Me If I Could, Halsey / The Sea of Monsters / ? / LET YOUR DAD DIE ENERGY DRINK, Lavery and Corrigan / The Last Olympian / Eat Your Young, Hozier / The Last Olympian / Orpheus and the Bacchantes, Lazzarini / The Blood of Olympus / Susan Smith, wych elm / Orpheus and the Bacchantes / The Burning Maze / ? / The Tyrant’s Tomb / Perseus Freeing Andromeda, Veronese / Abduction of Psyche, Bouguereau + Bacchus and Ariadne, Van Loo / The Tower of Nero / The Tower of Nero / The Tower of Nero