#a day at the mall

[thmgau]

CHAPTER 20 - A DAY AT THE MALL [wattpad link]

---

During the drive to the mall, Spring & Storm had explained to the group why exactly they were on Earth in the first place. Apparently, their father had told the girls about their mom running away to Mercury last night, when nov SHOULD have told them about it 2000 years ago. That was pretty much the gist of it, anywho. Now, Spring & Storm want to have a little fun on Earth before they deal with the divorce.

Cherry pulled her car into the parking lot. As everyone unbuckled their seatbelts, they hopped out of the car.

“Welcome.. to the mall.” Cherry said, gesturing at the mall. “Ta-dah.” “Oooh! It’s so big!” Spring gasped, in awe of the mall. “Man, I haven’t been to the mall in years!” “We literally went last month.” “Your point?” “What are we waiting for?! Let’s get in there already!”

The 7 of them walked into the mall. It was massive inside, as most malls are. Shops & stores were lined across the walls, with an escalator leading up to a second floor, with presumably more stores. In front of the group was a map of the mall, labeling where all the stores & exits were.

“Alright, mall time!” Kalani cheered. “Wait! Before we go anywhere,” Nora started. “It’s going to be impossible for all 7 of us to shop if we all have to stick together. I think we should form 2 separate groups.” “There’s 7 of us, yea? These groups are gonna be uneven.” “I for one approve of this group idea. Even if it’s uneven, it’ll be fun.” “Ok, fine. We can do groups.”

& so, the group strategically split themselves into 2 groups. The first group was Leslie, Spring, & Juniper, while the second group was Cherry, Storm, Nora, & Kalani.

“Alright. Let’s agree to meet back at the food court in.. an hour? Is an hour good?” “We can work with that.” “Alrighty! See you in an hour!”

With that, the two groups went on their merry way.

“So!” Nora clapped her hands together. “What store are we hittin’ first?” “I don’t actually know. We only went here because Leslie wanted to get a present for Natalie.” “We could.. go to Dillard’s? Have you ever been to Dillard’s, Storm?” “This is literally the first time I’ve ever left the Castle. I don’t know anything about your human locations.” “Yea, that’s.. fair, actually.” “I think you’d like it. C’mon!”

-

Leslie & Juniper found themselves inside of Old Navy. Juniper had asked where Spring wanted to go, & she spun around & pointed at the Old Navy. Leslie doubted it’d find anything Natalie would want in an Old Navy (it seemed like Spencer’s or Hot Topic would be more her style, anyway), but it could use a new pair of jeans anyway.

“Ooh! What’s that?” Spring asked, pointing toward a mannequin styling a blouse & a pair of leggings. “Oh, that’s a mannequin!” Juniper said. “People use them to model clothes & all that sorta jazz.” “That’s neat!” she hummed. “I didn’t know humans had different types of clothes.” “You- You didn’t?” Leslie questioned. “No. The only other human I’ve met is Betty, & she doesn’t talk about what Earth was like often.”

Betty.. that name sounded familiar. It was in the list of Celestials that Leslie & the group were reading just a week ago.

To avoid talking about Celestials in the middle of an Old Navy, the group decided to put the topic at rest & ask more about Betty later.

“Oh! These look cool!” Spring ran up to a pair of jeans with a flower embroidered on it. “Oh, that is cool.” Juniper nodded. “If it’s in your size, you could probably get it. What size are you?”

Spring turned to look at Juniper.

“Oh. Yeah. I don’t think Celestials know what pant sizes are.” “I mean, hey! If they’re too big or too small, we could probably get Natalie to fix ‘em up. She did make that villain costume herself, after all.” “Well, I’ve never worn pants before, so this’ll be an exciting experience!” Spring grinned. “I’ll take ‘em!”

-

“So what, this place just sells.. foot gloves?” “They’re called shoes.” “Whatever.”

Cherry, Nora, Kalani, & Storm were in Dillard’s, a very widespread department store. The group typically didn’t go in here often, but it seemed like a general enough store for them to go to for now.

“I mean, Dillard’s sells more than just shoes. There’s bags, dresses, jewelry.. I think this is where I got my first skirt, actually!” “Oh yea, this is where you got your first skirt! It was you & me & Sorrel, who had just gotten their driver’s license, & they took you here to shop around!” “Why did you tag along again? I always forget.” “I think I wanted to skip out on some event my mom wanted to take me to. I dunno.” “Can we just shop?” Cherry crossed her arms. “We are shopping! Look at all this shopping I’m doing!” Kalani grabbed a sweater off from the hanger it was on. “Look! Doesn’t this look cool?” “That does look.. kind of cool, actually.” Storm said.

The sweater was dark blue, with a yellow thunderbolt design crocheted into it.

“Oh, yea. Thunderstorms are kind of your thing, huh?” “Duh. Why do you think my name is Storm?” “I mean, if you want the sweater, we can get it for you.” “Really?” “Of course!” “Well, then.. I’ll take it.”

-

A feeling of dread & agony quickly washed over Leslie & Juniper when they saw what store they were headed to next. It was purple, bright, sparkly, & not a very good place to get your ears pierced (Leslie would know, from experience).

Claire’s.

Leslie was certain it wasn’t going to find anything here for Natalie’s birthday, & Juniper’s punky aesthetic clashed with the store’s vibrant colors. Nevertheless, this is where Spring wanted to go, & the two of them weren’t about to say no to a Celestial.

Spring was in awe of everything in the store. It kind of reminded Leslie of when they walked into Claire’s for the first time. They just desperately hoped Spring wouldn’t ask to get her ears pierced here.

“Ooh! Look at this!” Spring gasped, holding up a pendant with a little white daisy on it. “Oh, that’s cute!” Juniper smiled. “I think that’d be perfect for you!” “Really?!” “Of course! C’mon, let’s go pay for it!”

As Juniper & Spring went up to the front counter, Leslie looked at all the necklaces that Claire’s had to offer. It wasn’t sure if Natalie would like these necklaces, let alone want a necklace at all. If they had known it was Natalie’s birthday beforehand, Leslie could have made cupcakes for her. They sighed, holding a pair of BFF Yin & Yang necklaces in their hand.

Yin & Yang are, to put it in simple terms, opposites that are interconnected. Did Leslie & Natalie really feel interconnected? Without delving too deep into it, the two of them could be considered opposites. Light & dark, passive & active... All sorts of things that are together in some way. Leslie’s only known Natalie for a month, but she’s always been intertwined in their heroic adventures. Helping out with the bananapocalypse (as Leslie liked to call it), fending off Pim & The Auctioneer, & even fighting the puppets on stage. Despite only having a squeaky hammer as a weapon, Natalie might as well be just a part of the group as anyone else.

Leslie grabbed the necklaces off from where they were hanging.

-

“So.. how do I look?”

Storm stepped out of the dressing room. Instead of the dress & hood the group had met her in, she now donned the sweater from earlier, along with some ripped jeans & fuzzy boots.

“Oh! You look so cute!” “Fuckin’ awesome, girl.” “Thank you!” Storm spun around a little bit. “This.. ‘sweeter’ thing is a lot softer than I had anticipated, but I do like it. A lot.” “I’m glad you enjoy it! Clothes shopping can be so much fun sometimes. We really need to do this more often!” “Oh yea, totally. It has almost been an hour though, so we should-”

Cherry paused, spotting 2 girls entering the store they were currently in.

“Oh no.” “Huh? What’s up?” Nora asked. “My sisters are here.” Cherry shuddered. “Oh, Poppy & Carmine? We haven’t seen them in years!” “Yea, for good reason. Those bitches always got on my case for breakin’ the rules.” “Ohh, yea, now that I think about it, they were kind of dicks to all of us, huh?”

Poppy & Carmine turned around & spotted Cherry.

“Cherry!!” Carmine waved as the two of them walked toward the group.

Poppy & Carmine were dressed a lot more fancy than Cherry was. Carmine, the middle sister, wore a white tube top & red, baggy pants. Poppy, the youngest, wore a red dress with a white belt & an opal necklace around her neck. Along with that, Poppy also had a red headband keeping her hair behind her, & some fancy dangly earrings. If you put Cherry, Poppy, & Carmine in a line together, you wouldn’t be able to tell Cherry was even related to them.

Cherry groaned, stuffing their hands into their hoodie’s pockets. “Hey, Poppy. Hey, Carmine.”

“What a pleasant surprise running into you here!” Carmine grinned. “Hey, what’s up with the necklace?” Poppy asked, pointing at the red tie necklace around Cherry’s neck. “You didn’t have that last time we saw you!” “Jesus, you’re not even going to say hi?” “Greetings are reserved for people who don’t wear lame old hoodies & necklaces shaped like ties.” “Oh, whatever. You & Mom have always been on my case over what I wear.” “Well, we are Russells.” Carmine said. “We’re expected to be the example.” “Yea, & as the oldest out of all of us, you should know that the best, Cherry.” Poppy crossed her arms.

Cherry groaned. Nora & Kalani stepped back a little, Storm following along.

“Who cares about being the example or whatever?” “You know Mom only pays for you & your friends’ rent because she thinks you’re out wearing dresses & being fancy instead of wearing trash like this, right?” Carmine raised an eyebrow. “Of course I do.” Cherry lied. “You have a standard to uphold, Cherry. We all do. So you better start upholding it.”

“WELL THIS HAS BEEN A GREAT MEETING BUT WE HAVE SOMEWHERE TO BE!” Kalani grinned, pushing Cherry out of the store as Nora & Storm followed. “YOU TWO HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY! SPARKLE ON!”

As soon as the group was out of range from Poppy & Carmine, Cherry sighed, sitting down at a table in the food court (which just so happened to be nearby).

“God, I fuckin’ hate my sisters.” “Yea, they suck bad.” “They’re probably gonna tell my Mom about this encounter & she’s gonna stop paying for our rent. I honestly considered going into Hero Mode just to fuckin’.. stab ‘em with my sword or something. I don’t know.” “I don’t even think you’d need the sword, honestly. Haven’t you been working out? You could just beat ‘em up!” “Yea! You’re right!” “You are not going to beat up your sisters, Cherry.” “Well, duh. But I wish I could.” “Hey! Over here!”

The group looked up & saw Leslie, Juniper, & Spring from across the food court.

“Les! Juni!” Kalani waved.

The two groups ran over to each other.

“Did you all have fun?” “Yea, it was awesome!” “Storm, check out my new outfit!”

Instead of the yellow & orange dress Spring was wearing earlier, she now wore a yellow t-shirt with a pocket (a picture of a flower was on the pocket), some jeans with a flower embroidered into them, & flip-flops. A necklace with a white daisy on it was also around her neck.

“Woah, that’s cool.” “Thanks!” “Alright! Who wants lunch?” “Ooh! Lunch time!”

-

The rest of the day went as well as it could. After the group had lunch at the food court, they went to the park, which Spring & Storm had enjoyed quite a bit. Then, they visited the museum for a bit & got some stuff at the gift shop.

By the time the group made it back to the dorm building, they were absolutely worn out.

Cherry parked their car as everyone unbuckled their seatbelts & hopped out.

“Jeez, it’s getting late.” Cherry yawned, looking up at the sunset. “We should be heading to bed soon.” “What about us?” Storm asked. “Yea, where are we gonna stay?” “Oh, you two can stay in my apartment if you want!” Nora suggested. “Really?” “Of course, I’ve got plenty of room! Hope Sorrel doesn’t mind!” “Wow.. you 5 truly are heroes.” “I suppose we are!” Leslie chuckled. “& tomorrow, you 5 are gonna get our parents back together!” “Oh. I forgot about that. There goes my Saturday.” “I��m sure it’ll be fine!” Kalani said, a twinge of doubt in his voice. “Let’s just head to bed for now. G’night, everyone.” “Goodnight!!”

[therandomestwriter]

Lololol these are great. 😂

Nothing to see here, just Art the Clown enjoying some down time at the mall.

📸 Bob Catalano

[bacchuschucklefuck]

typical tavern scene

[wtfforged]

i put him in my clothes again

[morganbritton132]

Eddie, middle of a live-stream, to someone off camera: Hey! I’m giving you a hickey tonight!

Steve, off-camera: Not on my neck!

Eddie:

Eddie: I will comply to your demands.

[soop-jpg]

young justice has taken over my brain and theyre all i can draw lately <3 also i highly recommend clicking to view the top 2 bc tumblr cropped then bad in the format </3

[cryptocism]

guy who spends all his money on demonia boots

[tacc0yak1]

YK that scene in Tangled wherein the kids were braiding Rapunzel's hair? yeah now imagine that but baby Malleus n General Vanrouge LMMMAAOOOOOO

poor guy, he's growing soft

[clownzaf]

I need a fanfiction of Tim Drake being basically Nicole from Class of 09. Jason never died so he never became Robin, he stayed a really pretty kid alone in a big house. He had no one to teach him morals or told him that something he’s doing is wrong (One of the things that can develop ASPD is inconsistent parenting and neglect!) + he’s awfully pretty so he suffered from grown adults trying to make moves on him since he was little.

The drugs and the suicide attempts are just plus!

He also is Duke’s and Stephanie’s classmate! So they see that kid who lives next door and is kind of an asshole and always ends up in the progress of someone’s death and decide to investigate him.

Neglect, multiple medical emergencies for suicide attempts, moving very often bc of his parents business (Even if they just stayed a couple of days before leaving him alone again) and the kid has started 10 lawsuits against pedophile teachers and ended up winning.

They decided to adopt him even if they had to drag him kicking and screaming.

Tim swears to god that if that family of furries is trying to kidnap him he’s gonna kill himself. He isn’t pathetic enough to put on a suit.

[jazzies-stuff]

‼ Breaking news on NRC Times !!

Bonus - Ramshackle Dorm reading the school newspaper:

Based on this:

[hools]

happy trans day of visibility 

[i-lavabean]

Mall Goth GAIA Gang

[keldabekush]

uhh rex and 42 if you want

[CAPTAIN REX would like it noted on record that this was not what he agreed to when he said he would babysit COMMANDER TANO.]

[COMMANDER TANO would like it noted on record that CAPTAIN REX was the one who suggested they attend this concert.]

[COMMANDER TANO would like it further noted that CAPTAIN REX seemed to know an awful lot of lyrics for someone who, quote, doesn’t like music for sulky adolescents, unquote.]

[CAPTAIN REX requests previous comment be expunged from the record. He additionally requests that COMMANDER TANO be noted as a Liar and a Snitch.]

Ashoka and Rex see Space Three Days Grace on coruscant and they wear so much clip on jewellery. She just ended up in the sketch somehow

[kantharohs]

it's world goth day, stay spooky✮♱

(img src 1 2 3 4)

[mallgothchloe97]

It’s a real shame that goth has become nothing but mere aesthetic now when there is so much more than aesthetic. Which I am not judging anyone on how they fell in love with the subculture, if the aesthetic is what drew you in, that’s absolutely ok, people’s experience is different and hey times have changed over the years and people probably didn’t have any goth people in their corner to show them the ropes.

But it’s a fucking shame how corporate it’s become almost.

Goth is a music based subculture and this is coming from someone who claims to be a Mall Goth and Vampire Goth.

The goth subculture developed from the creation of gothic rock, an offshoot of the Post-Punk music genre.

What is Post-Punk?

Post-punk is very similar to Punk in regards to ideologies and mentality, but they differ in their musical influences.

Punk is mostly influences by elements of Rock, whereas Post-punk is all about breaking away from Rock cliches and experimenting with different musical styles.

Anarchism: The belief in the dismantling of all forms of authority, unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, i.e. capitalism.

• Non-Conformity: Not conforming or adhering to generally accepted standards or customs.

• Anti-Corporatism: A movement targeted against major international and global corporations, particularly those believed to be using unethical or unsustainable methods to create their products.

• Individual Freedom: The belief in the rights and autonomy of individuals to make decisions Without undue interference from external forces.

Goth is so much more than killstar hauls and thirst traps and makeup. Which don’t get me wrong if you do those things, I ain’t stopping you and it’s fine to do them every once in awhile, but please just keep that in mind.

But yeah.

Like I said there really isn’t any rules to being goth.

Just be you.

Be authentic.

That’s all.

[morganbritton132]

I love the newer teachers not knowing who Eddie is and visiting Steve at his house and wondering how they can afford such a nice house. I can imagine that they live in a house way above a teachers salary, much less a teacher with presumably, a lot of medical bills. They see gold records hanging on the walls and all of Eddie’s awards on a bookshelf and they are trying to connect the dots to who Eddie is.

David’s first impression of Steve is, admittedly, not great.

He was hired as a long-term substitute halfway through the school year and technically, Mr. Harrington was the only teacher on their floor not to introduce himself to him. They’re supposed to cover the eighth grade lunch period together, but Steve hasn’t shown up once since David was started three days ago.

Instead, the principal covered for him.

Cindy McCullen, the gossipy history teacher across the hall from him, says that it’s because of favoritism. She says that Principal Moreno always lets her favorites run rampant around the school and lets them do whatever they want, especially if they’re tenured. Steve Harrington is the most egregious example of blatant favoritism.

David starts to form an opinion about Mr. Harrington in his mind that only gets worse with every story he hears from Cindy. So, it’s a bit of a shock when Steve shows up for lunch duty the next day with a whole ass service dog.

He feels like an asshole.

Especially because Steve is so apologetic about missing the last three days and leaving David to ‘the wolves’ during his first week, “Is this your first teaching job? I’ve heard from the kids that you’re doing great!”  

He makes a conscious effort after that to get to know Steve and to stop letting other people form his opinions for him. Though, admittedly. He kinda fucks that up too.

The first time David meets Eddie, he thinks that he’s Steve’s brother.

It’s not that Steve doesn’t talk about his life outside of work. It’s just that he doesn’t go into a lot a detail. David knows that he’s married to a man, that he’s from Indiana originally, and he might have a kid. Maybe? A girl name Erica that tells him what a brony is and how they ruin everything.

Hell, David’s not even entirely sure he knows what Ozzy is in service of. Steve just said that he bumped his head one too many times and now he has a dog so his husband stops worrying so much.

The only surefire thing that David knows is that Steve has a brother that’s a bit of a dork. He has great hair and is really smart, but lacks tact. Steve loves him. You can tell by the way that he talks about the guy.

So one day, David is in the teacher’s lounge heating up a cup of Easy Mac while Steve is sitting with his head down at one of the tables. He’s about to suggest that Steve go home and sleep off whatever cold he has when a guy with long hair and a leather jacket sticks his head in the room and declares, “You look like shit.”

Steve doesn’t even lift his head when he flips him off which is – whoa, not something that David would expect from Mr. Harrington. He makes himself busy with stirring his mac and cheese while the two bicker with each other which is, admittedly, childish.

Leather Jacket’s main argument for why Steve has to listen to him and go home is because he’s older. Steve croaks out that that is bullshit and Leather Jacket threatens to call their Uncle Wayne if Steve doesn’t listen. He eventually agrees.

Before they leave, Leather Jacket sticks his hand out to David and introduces himself as the cooler Mr. Harrington (that gets a laugh out of Steve).

So, color him shocked when Steve invites their event committee over to his house.

David hasn’t even fully gotten over how nice of a neighborhood Steve lives in on a teacher and retiree’s salary when Leather Jacket gets introduced as Eddie, the husband Steve has mentioned. Then he just casually mentions a red carpet like, what?

And the craziest part is that he’s asked about his husband before!

Steve mentioned once that his husband was out of town and when David asked what he did for work, Steve said that he was retired. He said that his husband can play guitar and that one of their friends (James Hetfield) needed a last minute guitarist for some kind of fair (Coachella) so Eddie went to help out.

He definitely worded it like playing guitar was just a hobby that his husband has, not like. Not like platinum records lining the hallway to their bathroom or the picture of Steve and Eddie in Vegas with KISS stuck to the fridge. He swears the note on the dry erase board by the garage entrance signed ‘Dave’ is in Dave Grohl’s handwriting.

There’s an Grammy on the bookshelf by the fireplace.

Who the hell is Steve Harrington?

Better question: Who the hell is Eddie Munson?

Kathy laughs the entire drive to her house and she is still laughing when he drops her off. The only thing she says that could even be considered an answer is, “I think he’s on Tiktok. Start there.”