#also its like. spike but pull him to the goth end of punk

[fjoundfjamily]

got possessed by spike btvs

[they/them]

[redr0sewrites]

Hi, I love your works! Can you write a hazbin hotel Lucifer x gn punk reader? Like, they dress punk, listen to punk music and are pretty rebellious anarchists? Tysm

YESSSS OFC!!!! also random rose lore but i am such a big green day fan and my mom once went to a green day concert and she talks ab it all the time-

🥀Cw: fluff, Lucifer being a sweetie

🥀HCs:

Lucifer was probably a little confused about your style and ideals when he first met you

he would ask you soooooo many questions about your outfits

hes a little awkward, but he means well 😭

he definitely asked you for music recommendations because you seemed really interested and invested in your style of music

when you started talking all excitedly about your favorite bands and music taste, Lucifer found himself enraptured by your love for the things you enjoy

Lucifer admires your individuality and how you stay true to the things you enjoy, and he also loves your spunky attitude

deep down, he despises heaven and authority figures as much as anyone else and he thinks its hilarious that the two of you are dating

an anarchist and the literal king of hell

once u start recommending your music to him, hes hooked

suddenly every rock or punk song he listens to reminds him of you, and he adores it

i think he'd really enjoy green day, maybe x ray spex too, but he'll ultimately listen to anything u want him too

lucifer ADORES your style too

if you wear studded patch jackets, vests, etc he DEFINITELY designs patches and studs for you

he would give u a little duck or apple pin to put on your jacket!!!

lucifer will help you out with your hair too, he loves detangling it at the end of the day and washing all of the hair spray and spiky styling out

would def help you dye it fun colors too

i mentioned this in my goth hcs, but if you wear a lot of jewelry he loves to fiddle and fidget with it while he's bored

like he'll just be standing next to you and all of a sudden he's playing with the chain necklaces you're wearing or poking the spikes and studs on your jacket just bc he's bored

overall, he's super supportive and sweet

"are you ready, duckling?" Lucifer called, waiting for you to finish getting ready. he had decided to take you out on a date tonight- not to a fancy establishment, no, but to a more hell-born central part of the pentagram to visit some knock-off theme park you'd mentioned weeks ago called LooLoo Land. the both of you thought that the obvious copyright of Lu Lu World was hilarious, and what better place to go on a date than a shitty theme park?

"I'm coming Luci, give me a sec!" you shout, "i'm just finishing up with my accessories". Lucifer hums in response, soon bursting into giggles as you come hurdling down the stairs, tackling him in a hug. you both pulled away after a few seconds, and Lucifer stepped back to admire your outfit. "Is it just me, or have you gotten spikier?" Lucifer chuckled, poking a stud on your jacket as you roll your eyes. "C'mon you, we have to go!" you smile, dragging him out the door as he admired your determined expression. "driving or teleporting?" you ask, and Lucifer shrugs. "you're no help," you grumble, but take his hand. "let's teleport, it'll be quicker." with a smile, Lucifer opens a portal. "Whatever you wish, dear ~"

RAHHHHHH💯💯💯 this one required a bit of research cuz idk as much ab punk culture/music as ik ab goth stuff, but it was still sm fun to write!!!!!

[bitchapalooza]

More hetalia highschool AU, 🌟magic team🌟 edition :)

Under the cut bc it is long ❤️

Vladimir is that one kid obsessed with Twilight but only for the vampires; it was his first ever exposure to vampires thanks to his dad thinking Twilight was an appropriate book for a 11 year old. Team Edward going strong for five years, he'd proudly declare like it actually mattered. He tries his best to dress goth at school even though his uniform gets in the way. Fake ear piercings(his parents won't let him pierce them yet), over the top makeup, he's dyed the top half of his shoes black because his parents were concerned about his obsession with black and wouldn't buy him the black tennies he wanted— "mom look, these are marked down for back to school! Can I pleeeease get them???" "....may I know why the black ones specifically?" "They match the ever nothingness of my soul." "Yep! The white ones it is then!" "Mooooooooooom!"— Vladimir has been dubbed the cringy vampire kid of course.

Lukas is into pretty much anything concerning cryptids and magical creatures because they can't be proven to be fake or real, which intrigues him. He carries a book about mushrooms at all times and info dumps on pretty much anyone about identifying poisonous mushrooms and which mushrooms are safe to eat. His backpack is covered in buttons and pins to show off his interests. He keeps an amethyst in the front pocket of his backpack, reason unknown other than to just randomly pull it out and let Mikkel look at it. He's that kid that always wears his hoodie no matter the season, he never takes it off. Under his hoodie is always a crude worded t-shirt that the school would not approve of, much less his parents. He's relatively quiet and because he's quiet he's considered a weird kid.

Arthur can't decide if punk is his style or if goth is. Either way, his way of self expression at school in addition to the uniform is horrible. Checkered black/red shoes his grandma got him with his older brother's hand me down worn out greying socks—"can I PLEASE just have my own clothes???" "we have perfectly good clothes for you in the garage! I can fix them up to fit you better and everything!" "but I want cool NEW clothes!" "those are cool clothes and as far as the other kids know, they're also new. Now get your transformer backpack and get to the car. I put a new patch on it last night so that should hold it for the rest of the year."— Old Pierce the veil shirt, with holes chewed into the collar from his older brother Dillan, peeking out from under his white polo. A black and red choker to match his black and red slowly tearing apart too big flannel on top of a black pull over. A deep blue beanie, the hoodie of his pull over almost constantly on top when outside the school. He dyes a part of his hair a different color every month. He spikes his hair using too much gel and is convinced he looks good. He talks too much about bands and always gets Vlad and Lukas going on and on about fictional creatures he does not FULLY believe in himself. He does, however, believe in magic and loves Harry Potter, more specifically the Weaselys, to bits.

Natalya is a sophomore, a year behind the boys, and she just kinda pushed her way into the friend group until they eventually accepted her into it. They were the only three she knew who liked occult related topics. She's on the baseball team because she wanted an excuse to hit things with another thing and NOT get detention because of it. She wears the khaki uniform skirt and takes full advantage over being able to wear any kind of tights underneath; skull pattern, plain black, blood splatter pattern, fire pattern. Anything that makes her feel like a badass. She's always talking about antiques and forging weapons, more specifically knives. She has a whole collection of fidget toys but her favorite is this pea pod keychain her father gave her. She's always talking about how she'd like to be a medical examiner and to just prove that she's serious, she'll bring up a picture of a human model and point out the difference between a self inflicted fatal wound and a homicide. She puts up a charade of being able to see and talk to ghosts to freak out Alfred, her extended friend first met through Tolys.

They collectively believe they're cool and that other people know this. They're genuinely blind to the obvious snickers sent their way, being called losers and nerds. They're really knowm for like really pathetic things like; Natalya is Ivan's, tallest and most intimidating member of the wrestling team, weird younger sister by a year. Lukas is just the weird quiet kid that reads by the courtyard garden during lunch. Vladimir is not only the vampire goth kid but the kid who's parents believe the teachers are giving his son low grades on purpose and will yell at them for it. And Arthur is just. He's another Kirkland, immediately assumed to be a massive trouble maker because of his now graduated brother Alistair and one grade above him brother Dillan. Everyone loved his eldest brother Darick and sometimes compare him to Darick.

Compared to what others THINK they do, such as witch craft for some odd reason, the four of them do pretty typical teen activities. Like hang out at the mall. Do their honework together. Play video games and D&D when they have the chance. The boys do have sleepovers still as they have since meeting each other in middle school, Nat not really being a fan of sleeping where she doesn't live but comfortable enough to go to their houses and just chill for the day. They have become friends because of their related interests but thats not what they're ALL ABOUT.

Fun facts/stories about these losers I thought about while bored as fuck:

• Lukas, in his freshman year, went on a nature hike field trip with his lit class after reading Into The Wild. And he brought his mushroom book of course. They walked around, looking at the sights, talked about the book. Lukas just stops at one point, falling behind the class. He picks up a mushroom, goes to the teacher and is like "You see this? Its not poisonous." And straight up fucking eats it without warning. The teacher called an ambulance even though Lukas kept telling him he was fine and that that mushroom was 100% okay to eat raw, but for sure better off cooked. Lukas calmly shows the paramedics his book and they're like "yeah that actually was safe to eat, we don't need the book to confirm that, but um. Please don't ever pick something off the ground and eat it again. Just. Please don't do that, son." .....he did it again before leaving to go back to school but this time he didn't tell anyone.

• In elementary school, Natalya brought in a model of the human brain she asked her dad to borrow. He had to say yes because she was his only child genuinely interested, not bored of, his medical profession and he found it very cute and honoring. So she's at show and tell, its her turn right, and she silently goes up to the front of the class and pulls out the model brain. Teacher tries to step in because, hey, these are 6 year olds—AND WHY DOES THIS 6 YEAR OLD HAVE A PLASTIC BRAIN??? But Nat just shooshes her. In surprised shock, the teacher is just quiet as Nat begins to explain parts of the brain and their function— which was all wrong actually. She knew the words and everything but she didn't get the locations right. She sounded confident and smart and she was telling this to a bunch of 6 year olds so they believed her of course. End of the school day, her dad is having a hilarious conference with his youngest's teacher about the brain incident.

• Vladimir loves reading. He's loved it since he began to learn how, even if his dyslexia gives him grief along the way. So since he loves to read he'll always get excited and read ahead in class or in the public library reading club. One summer, the reading club was reading The Giver and it was getting really good. Vlad was loving the story, so much so that Vlad began to read ahead in his own time when he really wasn't supposed to be, the club was reading it together out loud and discussing it. Now he's read enough and worked hard enough to figure out how to help himself focus better and understand each word and sentence without having to reread it all multiple times over or get stuck. But sometimes the meaning and context to what he's reading doesn't ALWAYS process with the words as he's too focused on reading the words right and it passes right over his head. So Vlad is reading ahead and he's getting to the part where The Giver has given Jonas the memory of the sled again. And Vlad just sits there after reading that paragraph. He rereads it. And rereads it again. And then he leaves his book on his bed, goes to the the hall closet and takes out the ironing board. He grabs a plastic container to use as an ill attempt of a helmet and he just. Rockets down the staircase and hits the wall. He screams and cries and his parents rush in from the livingroom. When asked what happened he just says "I wanted to understand the sled scene better! Now I do and I feel really bad for Jonas!" He just couldn't quite grasp WHY the sled accident hurt, never had a broken bone nor sled afterall, and needed to find out. And that's how Vlad got his first broken arm at the age of 12.

• When Alfred and Matthew moved in with Arthur's family, Arthur didn't like it. He was a moody young teen but he was also just tired of the full house. His cousins were loud and nosey. He had to share a room with his four older brothers already and now with Matthew while Kathleen and Alfred got a room to themselves. Arthur thought this was so unfair. So his solution was to run away. He was 13, he needed a place to have some peace and quiet for once. So he texts Francis and Lukas, the only two of his friends living in his neighnorhood. Francis is not on board with helping him run away at first but then Lukas brings literally all his camping gear for Arthur's use and then Francis is on board because he had the feeling Arthur was going to get himself killed somehow. So as the elder one of the group he accompanied Arthur and Lukas out to the short stretch of woods behind the last street of their neighborhood, intending to go to the big clearing before hitting the roads leading to the airport and whatever else buildings. They're out there setting everything up together and they're done by like 4 pm. They sit down and talk, munch on oreos and other snacks Arthur deemed as essential survival foods. Then Francis looks at his cell and remarks "wow its already 6! Ah, Lukas, we should get home. Afterall, neither of us ran away so we still have supper to eat. Come on Lukas, let's go before our parents come looking for us." They exchange goodbyes, Francis trying his best to hide his cocky smirk. So Lukas and Francis start walking off, Arthur crawls into the tent and eats half a cookie before frowning and feeling too alone. He didn't expect to feel alone because all he wanted was to BE ALONE. Before he knows it, he's running out of the tent yelling after his friends to stop and wait up. "Oh whats wrong, Arthur? I thought you wanted to run away." "I— I forgot I hadn't fed my rabbit is all! I'll run away tomorrow! I'm not... Feeling lonely if.. If that's what you think...." Arthur did not run away the next day. Buuuuuut the three plus Vlad made a tree house together in the Kirkland backyard that they still use today!

[gaylonelydyke]

if it’s not too late, 12 for episodes and ships, and 17!

its never too late! thankyou for the ask 🥰 oo damn this is gonna be a hefty one, just to prepare you this is gonna be long 😅😅😅

spoiler alert for my friends who are finishing up season 2 rn, be careful if you look at my top five episodes, pay attention the the episode numbers, i will put [ ] in bold at the beginning and end of spoilers!

12. Top 5 ships

5. faith x myself because have you seen faith? shes such a babe! spare consensual kiss maam?

4. willow x oz, i dont know if this is an unpopular or not but i feel like if the 90s had been more accepting of term then willow wouldve been bisexual, but like even now tv shows will rarely let characters say that word :( but anyway i love them! theyre both quirky and kinda awkward but its such a sweet relationship and you really see how they go from awkward crushes to an actual deep relationship, oz is one of my favourite characters too what a dude!

3. giles x jenny, mlmxwlw solidarity in this bisexual couple! there is no an ounce of straight between them and i love it, i love their dynamic, i love that giles *respects women* (im staring daggers at xander rn), also the original girlboss x malewife couple askdjaksjhd

2. drusilla x spike, these two!!!!!! once again a bisexual couple with zero straight between them, the vibes are off the charts. sexy vampires, goth x punk love, i just love them man, and their relationship is so interesting to delve into. like theyre vampires, theyre soulless and yet they have a capacity for love, they care deeply for eachother, theyre so tender towards eachother in season 2 in the way they take turns to care for one another, also drusilla picking spike up with one hand made me gay and thats on that

1. willow x tara!!!!! lesbians man lesbians! they have a beautiful relationship, until a certain point wink wink, they feel like a perfect match, willows become more outgoing due to buffy and xander snd having a proper group of friends, so its cool to see her as the more outgoing independant one in the relationship, and tara is such a honey 🥺 the biggest sweetheart in the world what a babe!!!! also like how groundbreaking was their relationship? as a queer couple, they had p much the dame amount of screentime as a aueer relationship today! and willow says the word lesbian so many times and is always making gay jokes which is something shows today are too scared to do, its honestly refreshing which is weird for a show in the 90/00s

12. Top 5 episodes

this is so hard because its such a damn good show so i had to rlly be picky about this but here we go

5. 6x22 ‘grave’- i watched buffy for the first time last year at work coz i worked with one other person just packing shit, and THIS was the episode that made us cry infront of eachother. the scene with willow and xander at the end is one of my all time favourite scenes and like legit we were watching and we starting going like ha.. this is so sad Q_Q and we looked at eachother and we were both crying akdjdjsjdhs its SO GOOD, like this is a friendship ive been so invested in and [seeing xander be able to pull her back from that dark place was so heart wrenching and amazing god its so good]

4. 3x12 ‘helpless’ - im finishing up s2 in my rewatch rn so i havent rewatched this one to double check but i remember loving it man. buffys father daughter relationship with giles is my favourite of the whole show they make my heart ache, so i love that this is an episode that really shows you how dedicated giles is to her, [its the breaking point where he finally disregards the fact that hes a watcher and acts as her father once and for all, its a turning point for their relationship where he is finally embracing the fact that shes like a daughter to him and i just love to see it Q_Q get you a dad who will leave his lifes calling for you]

3. 4x22 ‘restless’ - season 4 is interesting coz it has really good episodes and them some gd awful ones 😂😂 but this one just blew me away, i love a good character study episode and this is THE SHIT! its so weird and creepy but in the most perfect way, its not on the nose its so subtle, it feels like an uncanny valley version of buffy almost, i like that they finished the season first and then took this episode to do something out of the box and different i feel like it lets them fully explore this idea without the pressure of needing plot included. [also the cheese man is iconic. dont however like xander being all nasty with willow and tara but whats new there man]

2. 1x12 ‘The Prophecy Girl’ - for my first watch of buffy i wasnt that into the first season, like i enjoyed it but i didnt think it was anything super special? but this episode changed EVERYTHING for me. up until now buffy had been fun, witty, charming, but not anything new atleast for me, maybe in the 90s it was but right now its your average teen supernatural show. but this episode!!!! the emotion! buffy facing her death, her speech about how shes just 16 and shes scared and she doesnt want to die, that is what i wanna see!! its heartbreaking and it made me cry, and then it gives us the wonderful moment of giles trying to take her place and buffy realising that she has to be the one to do it, man its so good! basically anything with buffy and giles being a duo is gonna make it an automatic yes from me and this is indeed the case for this episode, i just love that the show remembers that shes a child! shes not brave all the time, shes not strong all the time, shes just doing her best and sometimes its overwhelming, 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 i bow to this episode

1. 2x17 ‘passion’ - i know i just sang praises about prophecy girl but THIS EPISODE IS THE SHIT, the best episode full stop. i wont accept any argument. angel is probably my favourite big bad, its so funny to see plain bread, mopey brooding angel become this charismatic, funny, poetic, blood thirsty angelus, hes everything i want in a villain and in this episode he delivers! rip jenny tho love her. i think the tension built around angel is so good, because of his drawings and notes left around, every scene youre worrying like is he here now? are they safe or what? its so tense! and also it is me and im a slag for buffy x giles father daughter moments and this episode fucking delivers! giles discovering jennys dead body is probably one of the best scenes on the show, the dramatic irony is heAVY, we know jenny is dead, we know that these flowers arent from her, but giles is so so happy, and i want to see him happy but you just know somehing horrific is about to happen and damn does it. its a masterpiece! i love jenny and giles so much it is so sad, but also the fact that it gave us that scene makes me almmmoost ok with it? i also love the moment where giles breaks down in buffys arms, hes been there for her and now shes returning the favour and hes accepting it i just 😭😭😭 also on a different note, angels narration of this episode is amazing! it gives us great insight to who he is as “evil angel” and like even though hes awful i was also kind of rooting for him coz hes just such a great villain

sorry this is so long lmao, last question!

17. Which characer do you wish had less of a focus on them in the show?

i dont wanna get yelled at butttttt i dont like the amount of focus on dawn. i think it makes sense for the her first season considering the story arc but that season really does double down its focus onto dawn and buffy and it barely leaves room for anyone else to have a storyline, it keeps the episodes super depressing too its like a constant level of just sadness the whole time because we’re so stuck in THEIR arc, theres no room to balance it out and have a breather, some people might like that its more serious but i really really didnt like, i love episodes like prophecy girl where it is campy and brings the more emotional notes in when the time comes, but dawns whole arc is just constantly depressing the whole time i just hate it, and also just shes not a character i felt i could connect to because of how suddenly shes introduced, so its weird to have her SO focused on in the first half of that season coz we dont know her yet so i feel like the emotional moments dont land the way that they should? basically they shouldve eased us into dawn or introduced her differently and maybe i would like her enough to want the focus on her but i really just dont

adksjakjshd apologies for the essay this is, thanks for the ask!

[spidercakes]

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Tony gives him a once over and Peter feels a little self conscious on account of he’s the only one here wearing color. Well, a bright color. Carol is technically wearing color but her flannel is a dark blue and he hardly counts the yellow on her Nirvana shirt. “Come on, Peter. It’d be kind of fun, giving you a punk makeover. Bet you’d look real good in Nat’s clothes,” he says, drawing Peter into his lap. How is it that even Rhodey, who by all means is kind of a prep, is also not wearing color?

“I don’t know if I could pull that off,” he says honestly. He likes his pastels and his skirts and his soft aesthetic. Tony looks good in the leather and spikes and the eyeliner but Peter is pretty sure he’d look like he was playing dress up.

“I’m sure you’ve got something in your wardrobe that’s not pink. Humor me a little and give it a try,” he says, pressing a kiss to Peter’s cheek.

“Is anyone going to ask why the hell he offered up my clothing?” Nat asks, arms folded across her chest.

Bucky looks her up and down. “I don’t know, probably because he’s wearing the pink version of your outfit,” he points out. They both look down at each other and huh. Nat’s fishnets are black, so is her skirt and crop top, but it is pretty much the same as Peter’s except his skirt is pink and his shirt is white.

“This is kind of punk looking,” he says and Tony raises an eyebrow.

“Sweetheart, the black fishnets do not make that punk.”

*

When Tony sees Peter the next day he lets out a soft laugh. “Babe, that’s adorable but its so not punk,” he says, circling his arms around Peter’s waist and drawing him in.

Peter looks down at his outfit. “There is so much black here! Pretty sure this is like... all the black I own. And I think the shorts might be Liz’s, there’s like... not a lot of dick room.” But he can make do on account of he’s got no hips so it works out, if only barely.

When Carol sees him she snorts, “aw, he tried so hard! Its so close!”

“What’s wrong with this?” he asks, looking down at his outfit. He’s got the fishnets he worse yesterday, presumably Liz’s high waisted black shorts, and it took him forever to find those black garter belts to hold up the thigh highs he put over the fishnets. He only has them because he went through a very brief goth phase he no longer has picture evidence of, thank god. He even managed to find a black choker, he’s seen Nat wear those it counts!

“Well,” Tony says, “might be this very pastel pink shirt.”

“I don’t even think I own a black shirt! I did a lot of digging through my closet. I found things in there that should have never been there to begin with. I found the unicorn phase I went through when I was thirteen. I think this should count if for no other reason than I had to suffer looking at all that,” he says, pouting.

Tony grins, clearly having a good time with this. “No dice, baby. You can do better than this, I know you can.” Peter huffs because he found his unicorn phase. He should be spared a bad grade in punk due to psychological trauma suffered in his attempts to get there.

When Nat shows up she snorts, “aw, that’s so cute he almost managed it. Kind of. If punk were more pastel goth looking, anyway,” she says, looking as amused as Tony.

“This is why we call you pretty boy Parker,” Bucky adds, walking up behind her.

“You what?” he asks, looking to Tony, who rolls his eyes.

“That’s what he calls you because he keeps trying to make fetch happen,” he says.

Peter perks up, “you guys have seen Mean Girls!” he asks, excited. Usually their taste in movies is way different so its strange to find common ground.

One of Tony’s hands slip from his waist to his ass, “of course we’ve seen Mean Girls. What kind of savage hasn’t?”

“I haven’t seen it. Also how the blue fuck did I end up looking more punk than you?” Rhodey says, appearing from around the corner. Peter looks him over and he resents that Rhodey does look more punk than him and all he’s done is throw on a pair of black jeans, a black v-neck, and a leather jacket.

“You know what, I can do better than this,” Peter says, determined to outdo Rhodey of all people in punk looks. He can’t possibly go around knowing that a damn football player managed to out punk him.

*

He’s pretty confident that he’s at least managed to outdo Rhodey today in punk aesthetic and he had to steal a sweater from MJ to do it but he managed so. This time when Tony sees him he doesn’t immediately laugh so there’s that, but he does look amused. “Well, you definitely outdid Rhodey,” he says, gesturing to him.

Peter huffs, crossing his arms over his chest, “Tony, he’s literally wearing a letterman jacket. How could I not outdo that?” he asks.

“I had my doubts. You still look more like a soft boy going to the library but you’re not too far off,” he says, hooking an arm around Peter’s waist and drawing him in.

“Its all black! I had to steal this sweater from MJ,” he says, pouting. And he had to go digging back through the depths of his closet to find the garter belt with the flowers on it and he thinks he did a good job.

Tony snorts and starts laughing. “That explains why it looks familiar. Punk is more than a lot of black though, but you’re getting there,” he says, grinning.

Peter curls his arms around Tony’s neck and leans in, “And here I thought you might approve. Guess you don’t get to see what’s underneath now,” he says, laughing when Tony gives him a panicked look, pulling him back in when he goes to move away.

“Oh, no, no it fine,” he says, kissing Peter softly. “Really.”

“Is it? Because he looks like he’s about to spend a few hours in the library and dressed comfortably,” Natasha says, frowning at him. Tony gives her a look and she rolls her eyes, “you can’t just approve because you want to get laid, Stark. Here,” she says, pulling off the thick belt she’s got wrapped around her waist and putting it on Peter. “That looks better,” she says, nodding in approval.

Tony frowns, “huh. It actually does.”

Peter looks down and sure enough it does look better and come on. “A belt? Seriously?”

“Quit whining, I sacrificed my look for this Parker. Be grateful,” Natasha tells him.

Tony pulls him back in, hands settling on his hips. “So I get to see what’s underneath later, right?” he asks and Peter rolls his eyes.

“Horndog,” he accuses. Tony shrugs, unrepentant and Peter lets out a long suffering sigh, acting put upon. “Fine, I guess,” he says and Tony grins, eyes lighting up with excitement.

*

Tony snickers as Peter stretches out on his bed. “What, didn’t have that in pink?” he asks as he climbs onto the bed, sliding a hand up Peter’s thigh. He can’t believe it took him this long to find a pair of black jeans in his wardrobe and he actually really likes them.

“Yeah, I have it in pink, and mint green but I decided to wear the grey one,” he says as Tony’s hand slips up the sweater in question.

Tony’s lips quirk up, “the pink one would look cute with these jeans,” he murmurs as he leans in to kiss him.

Peter smiles, “I thought you thought I owned too much pink?”

Tony shakes his head, “nah. It looks good on you. Gotta admit, you in Carol’s Nirvana shirt, my jacket, and Bucky’s pants was a hilarious sight though.” Because they’d all given up hope that he could manage punk on his own and it turns out the look isn’t for him. As he suspected he looks like he’s playing dress up but he did snipe a skirt or five from Natasha and she can’t complain because he knows she stole at least two of his sweaters and a pair of jogging pants. They’re totally even now.

“Next time we should give you a pastel makeover. See how you come out,” he says, laughing at the way Tony wrinkles his nose.

“Oh, it looks fine on you but I draw the line at pastel anything. If you’ve got red I’ll let you put me in whatever, but leave the pastels at the closet door,” he says.

[spookyspaghettisundae]

The Empty Room

It looked like any other tall office building downtown. An ominous skyscraper in a concrete jungle. A sizable number of its windows glowed in different shades of yellow, dotting its exterior to contrast the nightly sky.

Two men stood in a narrow hallway on the building’s ground floor, right outside of a simple maintenance room. Even after dark, they could have heard the traffic from the streets with some car horns honking. Though as far as James and Leroy were concerned, the world might as well have not existed in that moment. Both of them felt heavy, like their limbs had doubled in weight and their bellies had been filled with bricks. They stared at the lime-colored door to the maintenance room. An overwhelming fear had paralyzed them both.

James finally budged, wiping some sweat from his forehead with the back of the sleeve of his blue janitor overall. His eyes remained transfixed on the shiny silver knob of the door.

“It’s been like five minutes, for fuck’s sake,” James said. He had forced himself to keep his voice low in a failed attempt to whisper, but the words rode on such a panic that they sounded loud and angry instead.

“I told him to not go inside,” Leroy replied, finally peeling his eyes off the door. He grabbed James by the shoulders and turned him, so he could look him in the eyes. Gently shaking James to the beat of every word to add emphasis, he said, “Calm your tits. The weirdo who can fix this’ll be here any second.”

James brushed Leroy’s hands off and waved his own arms around as if he was swatting imaginary flies.

“Don’t tell me to calm my tits! First Bill, then Simon. The fuck’s this weirdo gonna do about it?” When James asked that, he leaned in towards Leroy, so close that it made Leroy wince when his face was sprayed with some spittle that accompanied James’ outrage.

Leroy frowned and wiped his face while he finally managed to steel himself.

“This guy’s the real deal,” he countered.

“The fuck does that mean?”

“He—well, he looks a bit like, uh, Criss Angel—”

“The wrestler?”

“No, not the wrestler, stupid,” Leroy said with a sigh.

James laughed. It came out high-pitched and sounding fake, followed by him nervously asking, “What, really? The Las Vegas magician douchebag?”

“Well, yeah. Yeah, like him. I know from a friend of a friend—”

“Oh, come on.”

“Listen, the things this guy can do is amazing! And weird. But mostly amazing. He kinda does this for a living.”

“Leroy.”

“What?”

“Two people straight-up disappeared. And you called in a stage magician instead of security? Or the cops?”

“Look, man, I don’t want any trouble, okay? You know how hard it is for an ex-con to find a sweet job like this? No, believe me, my friend Milo wouldn’t bullshit about this. I heard this guy can make things combust. Or one time, he cleanly ripped a guy’s nose off. And he's—”

James interrupted him there with a, “Wait, what?”

Ignoring him, Leroy continued, “Like, an exorcist, or something. Not a stage magician, y'know?”

Leroy finally stopped rambling. He scratched his head and ruffled his own hair in the process, looking past James. James raised his brows and moved to get in the way of his line of sight, trying to re-establish eye contact.

James tried to keep his voice down again but it came out more like a screech when he incredulously asked, “Exorcist? Man, what? Do you even hear what you’re saying?”

“Dunno if ‘exorcist’ is the word I’d use, but finding lost people is kinda my thing,” a silky, unknown voice said behind him. It came right from where Leroy had been looking past James.

James spun around and assumed a pose with raised hands that looked like a cartoon caricature of some karate stance. The two janitors stared at the new arrival. This third figure was dressed in a long black trench coat, wearing jackboots, torn dark jeans, a dirty ‘Ride the Lightning’ T-shirt, a spiked collar around his neck, and enough make-up to make a goth or punk from the 1990s blush. His hair was styled in a jet-black fauxhawk tipped with red highlights and he had a few silver piercings adorning his lip, nose, and eyebrow. He carried a small cardboard box under one arm. Even the thick, smudged mass of black eyeliner under his eyes could not conceal the heavy rings of fatigue underneath them.

James and Leroy stared at the box sitting snugly under the weirdo’s arm. It was brown, with some pictographs warning of fragile contents and a 'This Side Up’ accompanied with an arrow indicating that the box was being held upside down, and silver duct tape having been used to sloppily seal the box’s flaps. As the ensuing awkward silence dragged on, the man cleared his throat and used his free hand to pull a crumpled pack of cigarettes out of a coat pocket. He struck the edge of his cardboard box with it till a cigarette popped out of the pack and he guided it up to his lips, swiftly putting the pack back into his pocket in a fluid motion.

“Hey, this is, uh, a no-smoking—,” James started saying. The sentence died in his mouth.

The stranger just stared back at him and said nothing. He then pulled out a stainless steel Zippo and flicked it open, lighting his cigarette with it, before putting the lighter away and continuing to stare at James in the meanwhile. As if he was challenging him.

“Okay,” James said. While the stranger took a few deep drags from his cigarette, James’ head swiveled to Leroy, and he asked, “Who is this dickhead?”

Leroy shrugged without peeling his eyes off of the stranger. The stranger continued smoking nonchalantly.

“I’m Kevin, but you can call me boss, or god, or something,” the stranger said with a wide grin. The grin faded instantly, and he looked around the shiny hallway. Then he peered past the two janitors at the lime door. The corners of his lips drooped ever so slowly until it looked like he wore a frown upon his face. Without looking at the two other men, he suddenly blurted out, “Milo tell you what I want?”

This time, Leroy cleared his throat. Nervously. “Uhuh,” he mumbled and started digging around in his overall’s pocket. He produced a wad of dollar bills held together by a rubber band, a discolored PEZ dispenser with the head of Elvis Presley, and a bronze antique-looking pocket watch. He held the handful of objects out towards Kevin, presenting them on an open palm.

Kevin stuck the cigarette in the corner of his mouth and grabbed the items with his free hand. He sniffed like someone with a cold and examined them close up.

James looked at Leroy and without saying anything out loud, his face and lips clearly asked, 'What the fuck?’ Leroy ignored him and observed Kevin with intense curiosity.

Kevin sighed, and his words slurred a bit because of the cigarette clamped down in the corner of his lips, “These one-dollar bills?” He scoffed and pocketed the items before he added, “Okay, rest’s good. I take it y'know you’re 'bout fifty short, jus’ give it to Milo when you can, he’ll get it to me.”

He walked towards the two men, approaching the lime door with determination. They stepped out of his way as he stopped to stand in front of the door.

James asked, “What’s in the box?”

Kevin either did not pay attention, or he ignored him, asking them without turning around to look at them, “This is the room, yeah?”

He took some more drags from his cigarette before leaving it in the other corner of his mouth, then he leaned against the door. He cupped his hand between the metal door and his ear and listened through the door as good as he could.

“Uh, yeah. So, first Bill went in before his shift ended, and we all thought he had gone home, but then—”

“Yeah. Uhuh. Sure,” Kevin replied simultaneously, and his tone betrayed how he had not paid attention to anything Leroy was saying. “Look, I don’t need your life story. Two people entered, never came out, and the room looked empty every time, with no other exits, right?”

He sniffed again and took another drag from his cigarette while looking back at Leroy.

James suddenly asked, “What’s in the box?”

Kevin still ignored him.

“Yeah, but one more thing,” Leroy said, also ignoring James and staring intently into the Kevin’s weirdly calm eyes. “There was a knocking coming from inside the room, every now and then,” he said, then swallowed like something was stuck in his throat. “Then, just before you arrived? Whispers from inside. Like a little kid’s. Nearly shit my pants.”

Kevin narrowed his eyes when he looked back at Leroy upon hearing that and then took a painfully long-looking drag from his cigarette until it looked like the cancer-stick had burned down its filter. He then flicked it onto the floor and stamped it out with the heel of his boot.

“Okay gentlemen, I got this,” Kevin said.

James sounded upset this time, “Seriously—what’s in that box?”

Kevin and Leroy continued to ignore him while Kevin reached out to the doorknob on the lime door. He twisted the knob, which was followed by a hollow click, and the door opened with an eerie creaking sound that did not fit the cleanly, clinical image of the sleek concrete-steel-and-glass office building they were standing in. Kevin sniffed again and leaned forward, peeking head-first into the room and swiveling his head to get a good look.

The room was devoid of human life. It was also far from empty, though. Inside it were shelves with cleaning chemicals, racks with mops, buckets, other cleaning implements, a workbench, and some power tools on other shelves.

Kevin stepped inside and swung the door shut behind him. James and Leroy both flinched when the door slammed into the frame and Kevin audibly locked it shut from the inside.

James immediately started pacing back and forth on the spot.

“Roy, who is this guy? And what are we telling the cops if he disappears too?”

Leroy groaned, bending over to pick the crushed cigarette butt up off the floor where Kevin had stamped it out. “Beats me. And, well, if he disappears too, nobody will be the wiser anyway, right? C'mon, have a little faith,” he said in a futile attempt to calm down James. Leroy himself sounded more fearful than before Kevin had shown up. He walked over to one of the rounded steel trash bins and dumped the cigarette butt inside it, then haphazardly wiped some of the ashes across the floor with the bottom of his sneaker, smearing them more than anything and creating inky-black streaks on the otherwise shiny floor. “Shit,” he muttered.

Growing impatient and with no less panic in his voice than before Kevin had arrived, James said, “Okay, that’s it, I’m calling—”

A sharp and sudden shout from inside the room caused James to stumble a few steps away from the lime-colored door in shock. A massive force flew into the door from the inside with a thunderous thud. Something that sounded like a dog or a child whimpering followed, and a series of expletives that sounded like Kevin was shouting them from farther away than should have been physically possible from the interior of that small room. Glass shattered, and then another tremendous thud of something slamming into the door with such force that it felt like it would get torn right out of the frame any minute now.

Leroy took a few cautious steps away from the door, and then the bedlam of strange noises ceased. James and Leroy stared at the lime door with every fiber and muscle in their body tensing up, expecting something worse to follow, but what felt like a painfully slow minute came and passed until they looked at each other with quizzical expressions. James nodded at the door and Leroy shook his head. James nodded at it again and Leroy shook his head with more zest. They repeated that non-verbal exchange a third time before Leroy said, “No fucking way.”

James insisted and Leroy sighed and swore again before he approached the door. His trembling hand closed in on the doorknob, and he held his breath when he started twisting it and opening the door.

Leroy swung the door open and shouted, “Hah!”

Nobody was inside. The two janitors focused on the inside of the maintenance room. It looked like a fight had taken place inside with various items littering the floor and one of the overhead neon lamps having been shattered. Leroy saw something blurry and unfathomable in the darkest corner of the room—all teeth and mouths and nothing else—and he started screaming. James lunged forwards, grabbed Leroy by the shoulders and yanked him back which in turn pulled the door shut because Leroy’s hand had clamped down around the knob in sheer terror. It slammed shut, and the two men tumbled onto the ground.

The shuffling of tiny feet scampered up to the other side of the door, and something scraped up along its surface. Leroy and James crawled and scurried away from the lime door while a terrified yelp escaped James’ mouth. Both of them bumped into the hallway’s wall opposite from the door, and they backed up against it, frozen in fear instead of fleeing headlong from the source of their panic. More scratching, then the doorknob started turning. And then it stopped moving. More scratching.

The sounds stopped, and the men realized that they only heard their own breathing and hearts thumping while they awaited certain doom to explode out of that door.

The lime door opened with an eerie creaking noise. Kevin stood there with a bleeding gash on his forehead and scrunching his left eyelids shut. He hugged the cardboard box against his chest with a single arm and touched the gash, then expressed feelings of pain with a grunt.

James stammered, “What the—what the hell just happened?” His glances swept back and forth between Leroy and Kevin. It dawned on James that Kevin was not holding the box casually anymore, the stranger in the black trench coat was gripping it so tight that the cardboard was bending under the pressure and Kevin’s knuckles had turned white. “Motherfucker, what’s in that box?” His hand shook as he pointed at the box in Kevin’s grip with a meaty finger.

Kevin sighed and blinked a few times, as if his eyesight was faulty, then answered, “You don’t wanna know.”

Leroy blurted out, “What about Bill? And Simon?”

Kevin’s eyes widened and before Leroy realized that the stranger in black probably had not been interested in their names, he saw dread in the man’s eyes for the first time in their brief encounter. Kevin slowly shook his head. Both James and Leroy felt a sinking feeling in their stomachs, like their bodies had turned into lead and they were about to conk out from dizziness. Kevin had said nothing, yet the fearful expression in his eyes spoke terrible volumes about the fate of their colleagues.

Kevin produced another cigarette in a swift motion, lighting it up and turning his back on the two janitors as he walked away. The two men in the blue overalls started getting up and looked at each other in disbelief, then followed Kevin with their gazes as he left them, walking down the hallway. His footsteps echoed through the bright halls, and he arrived in front of the elevator which he summoned with several impatient button presses, even continuing to do so after the doors slid open. A warmer light spilled out of the elevator and bathed him in it while it greeted him with a soft-sounding electronic 'ding’ to signal the doors having opened.

James wanted to say something, but then something inside the box thumped and jerked around in Kevin’s arms. The cigarette fell from his mouth, and it looked like the box moved with such disproportionate strength that it jerked the man around where he stood. Kevin rammed the box against the edge of an elevator door and then shook it a few times, triggering unnatural garbled sounds and a blood-curdling bestial roar to come from the box’s insides.

Kevin whispered something to the box, but he was too far away for it to be clearly audible. Leroy narrowed his eyes and could have sworn he had heard him say something like, “I have plans for you.”

“Sweet Jesus, what’s in the box,” James yammered, sounding desperate and less like he asked anybody—and more like he had resigned to never learning what was inside that box.

Kevin picked the cigarette back up off the ground, and took a drag from it while he disappeared from their sight as he stepped into the elevator.

There was another roar, and then the elevator doors slid shut.

—Submitted by Wratts