#and she hangs out with the scary kids that do drugs

[gallusrostromegalus]

I noticed when reading through all your worldbuilding stuff a bit ago that you changed from having isshin remember some stuff to not remembering shit and while i am absolutely not complaining, im curious why I out changed it? Like, cool either way, I'm just interested in the process ^^

I did and did not change it?

Amnesia is almost never a total void- it's more common for people to have SOME memories, but a total lack of context- the memories play out like a movie scene, but the person has no idea who the people in it are, or why they're doing that.

So Isshin has... some memories, but no context for them. He remembers a family member named Kaien- was that his cousin? A young uncle? A neighbor? He's not sure. He remembers a scary old man and some kid and the world's most annoying woman (affectionate), but he doesn't know who they are or how he knows them.

He also has memories of monsters, and the lore about how to avoid and destroy them- was it something Masaki told him, when they were both recovering in the hospital after his accident? Or something older? He doesn't remember.

Ichigo's taxidermy cat starts talking and walkign around and says his name is "Kon" and he's something called a "Mod Soul". Isshin thought that was a subgenre of music, but something about Kon's story follows a pattern of... something. Who knows what.

There's something familiar about the girl Ichigo brings home one night- his classmate, Rukia, who he found sleeping rough, can she stay here? Of course she can! Isshin has a good feeling about her, but heaven knows why.

Ichigo is going through something that he's weirdly reluctant to talk about- all boys get weird during puberty, but locking himself in his room or hanging out on the roof for hours on end, talking to himself? Odd, even for Ichigo. Especially when Isshin tries to eavesdrop on the conversation and it sounds like Ichigo is talking to an unseen friend- this "Zangetsu" guy. Why does that name sound familar? Why does Isshin even try to remember anymore?

Something is wrong. Something is terribly catastrophically wrong. Kon has been Piloting Ichigo's body for DAYS and won't say where his son's spirit has gone. He was doing the dishes and then suddenly... woke up on the kitchen floor. Karin and Yuzu are sluggish, all feeling like they'd been drugged. There's people asleep in the street. There's a terrible, heavy feeling in the air, like an impending hurricaine, despite the clear blue sky. Isshin is running to the hospital- if everyone's been knocked out, there's nobody watching the ICU, or what if someone was doing surgery when this happened-?

There's a man in the road.

"Shiba? Is that you? Is Destiny serving everything to me today?" he calls out, laughing. He's handsome, with a smooth voice and disarming smile. In the surroundings, it makes Isshin's skin crawl.

"...Don't you remember me, Captain Shiba?" the man asks, sounding vaguely disappointed.

Isshin absolutely does not. But he knows, deep in his bones, that this is a wicked, evil man. And that he doesn't have a chance against him, save for one thing- a ripple, less than half a sense of something, but a man knows his son in any shape, coming up behind the man at speed, he just needs an opening.

"OH HEY!" Isshin says, like catching sigh of a co-worker in the grocery store and shouting the first name that comes to mind because somehow he knows this will make the wicked man apoplectic with rage and blind to Ichigo's rapid approach. "URAHARA! KISUKE URAHARA I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU FOR AGES!"

[carolmunson]

okay, since some of you asked for it:

unpopular opinion but i don’t actually think eddie was a nice soft boy at all. dustin and mike are literally afraid to ask him to move hellfire. ‘he’s always revved up,’ implying that he’s always like this, always a little close to snapping. he’s not nice to them when he asks them to find a replacement. he also guilt trips them about 'taking them in like lost sheep' and shoves them off to find a replacement instead of keeping lucas included. which is why i don't understand the 'fierce protector of his friends' take because he's so quick to drop lucas just because he's 'moved to the dark side.' aka, throwing balls into laundry baskets.

which leads me to when he gets up on the table, people are not trying to fuck around with him. this is a common occurance, people are not surprised to see him up there and yelling. they aren't surprised that he's making a spectacle of himself. if eddie was soft and sweet, he would’ve gotten beat up. if eddie was soft and gentle, he'd probably be scared of jason. guys like jason in the 80s loved being macho and punching out losers — eddie just gave him the devil horns and called it a day. eddie’s absolutely gotten in fist fights before and won (his dad is a literal criminal!) otherwise someone would've thrown something or told him to shut the fuck up. people are scared of him, even his own friends! there’s more reasons than just playing DND and metal that make town certain that he’s a cult leader. you don't just assume someone is a murderer if they haven't shown any interest in violence before, especially considering his dad was likely a shitty dude. he even bullies erica when she first shows up to hellfire and only respects her when she bullies him back and bests him. he is someone you have to EARN respect from. he will never respect anyone outright or be understanding outright. he doesn't fully respect dustin or mike to start either, he views them as underlings.

even chrissy assumes he's going to be mean and scary, there's gotta be reason behind that. he's not nice or kind in school, which is likely a defense mechanism. he’s sweet with chrissy because he likes her, he has a crush on her. it’s very clear that he has since he was a kid, otherwise why would he bring up them hanging out in middle school? why would he even remember that if he hasn’t been pining for her this whole time? he admits too, albiet flirtily, that he thought SHE'D be mean and scary too, because he doesn't like people 'like that', people he assumes are 'on the dark side'. i’m sure he hoped they’d kiss a little when she went to his trailer. he's even a little sarcastic when she's there, again, defensive. 'the maid took the week off'. but ultimately, he's nice to her because he wants to kiss her and has a crush on her. i don't think it's because he's fully 'showing her who he really is'.

also he's a literal drug dealer????? like?????

he only becomes more gentle and open with dustin and co. when he gets pulled into the upside down/vecna stuff because he needs support. they grow a bond over shared trauma. and i do believe eddie had a big brother type relationship with dustin, but just like steve he loves him begrudgingly 'i love you, you little shit bag' kind of shit. i do believe he liked and cared for his friends but i also think he always had a big layer of mean kid armor on because he had a hard life growing up. how i percieved the character is 'mean bully whose secretly nice but is mean and boisterous and loud as a cover' trope. when he explains that his father taught him to hotwire, he seems bitter about it. of course he is, all the other kids were learning to play ball. but he obviously still retains this information and a whole bunch of other crime tricks from his dad. he's BEEN partaking in this shit. he KNOWS he's a shitty guy. you don't just get taught how to hotwire once and then suddenly know how to do it years later. he's done it before! multiple times! he has practice! he likely knows about warzone cause his daddy absoLUTELY had a gun or two. his dad probably took him there once. he was pulled left and right into bad shit growing up and that will HARDEN YOU. wayne says that murder 'ain't in his nature' and i'm sure it's not. i'm sure he's different with wayne, but idk, to me, it doesn't erase the fact that outwardly, i don't think eddie was nearly as sweet and gentle as people think he is canonically. i think he's a very hardened and tortured person and that even becomes clear with his reaction to chrissy's death and how he goes about things going forward. he was a weird kid with weird interests in a cookie cutter conservative town, had a criminal father, and an unconventional family situation in the 70s and 80s, that shit'll fuck you up and over -- look at boomers y'all! they are emotionally stunted! but, i could go on forever with this character analysis. so i'll stop here. but -- in the words of the real housewives reunion meme: that's MY OPINION!

[luvyeni]

❛RELAX❜ ( o. shotaro )

💬nia's notes: i know i said i wouldn't start wriring for riize just yet , but i couldn't help it i just love taro.

p. stoner!shotaro x shy!reader w. 3.4k (idk either)

warnings? drug usage , unprotected sex , dirty talk , pwp , cumming inside , oral ( f. receiving), fingering ,

— 𖦹 ( smoking weed with shotaro leads to something more ) !

"you're late mr. osaki." you looked up from your computer , you sat in the way back , so you got a good look at the entire class , including the boy who stood at the door , shoulders hung , he definitely didn't want to be here. "this the eighth time this month class starts at one o'clock not one-thirty."

he nodded , head still low. "i slept late." the teacher shook her head. "take a seat mr. osaki , next time set a better alarm." she turned back to the projector.

he made his way to the back , the rest of the desk filled up except the one next to you , your bag occupied the chair. "can i sit?" he said looking at you, you could now see that his eyes were red , he was high. "hello?" he waved his hand in front of your face. "h-huh?"

"mrs.(last name) , mr. osaki , is there a problem." the class turned to face you both. "just trying to sit down." he kept his eyes on you. "so can i sit down?" you nodded , quickly moved your things from the seat — he sat down , everyone turning back to the board and your heart finally stopped beating at 100 miles per hour from all the attention.

you tried to focus on the board , but you couldn't help but glance over to him everyone once and a while , you've see him every once in a while in this class , he'd often sit in the back , he almost never paid attention , but he always passed — getting up and leaving , he basically was there for attendance.

"you know i can feel you staring at me?" his whisper voice spooked you , you tried to turn , but it was no use. "y-you don't have any books." you said , he could barely hear you , but he chuckled. "yeah , i know." he said. "i'll get someone else to do it."

you went to face him again , but he beat you to it , his face was already close to yours. "what about you princess?" he smirked at your flustered stated. "you wanna do it for me , be a good girl and do my work for me?"

"wh-what." he sat back in his chair , head low again. "i was kidding (name)." how'd he know your name? "you're gonna miss the class if you don't pay attention. the class , that's right. "sh-shit." you cursed , turning to the right page , refocusing on the work , taking the notes down on your computer.

shotaro watched you , in fact he always watched you — you just never payed any attention to your surroundings , always trying to get somewhere quickly and quietly , but sometimes he'd catch you , mumbling things to yourself while working and he thought it was cute , he thought you were cute , so when god gave him the opportunity to sit next to you , he took it even though he was high out of his mind and could barely pick up on anything.

class went by quickly , shotaro had fallen asleep , probably sleeping off his high , while you jotted down the notes. "we have a test coming up , it's worth half your grades , so remember to study." you packed up all your stuff. "mrs.( last name)?" you looked up. "y-yes?" the professor pointed to shotaro. "please wake him up." she shook her. "don't even know why he bothers to come."

you turned to the sleeping boy , reaching out and lightly tapping him. "h-hey." you tapped him once again , a little harder this time , his eyes fluttered open , no longer red , his pupils back to normal. "class is over now." you said , about to walk away , when he grabbed your wrist.

"wait." his voice groggily from sleep. "let me take you home." he said. "you don't live on campus , correct?" you nodded. "b-but you don't have to." you said. "it's cool , i want to." he stood up. "wh-why?"

you were so cute , all shy. "maybe i just hang out with you , not everyone is all scary." he said. "you'll take me straight home?" you questioned. "i promise." he smirked , moving close to you , his body close to yours. "unless you have another place." he laughed as you took a step back. "let's go." he took your bag from your shoulders , putting it on his.

you guys made it to his car , he opened your door , letting you step inside before he closed the door , jogging over to the drivers side , climbing in , tossing your bookbag in the back. "ready?"

you looked out the window as drove , picking at the string on your skirt nervously , shotaro picked up on it , grabbing your hand. "stop that , you don't want to mess it up do you?" you shook your head , stopping. "good girl." those words sending a shiver down your spine.

"you hungry?" he spoke up. "we can stop for food." he wanted to grab food with you , did he mean like a date? was he asking you out on a date? "don't think too much of it , you'll hurt that pretty head of yours." he said. "there's a drive through mcdonalds near by , we can pick something up." you nodded , he let out a tsk sound.

"ah you can do better." he said. "let me hear that pretty voice , use your words." you couldn't understand it , but the way he spoke to you , it made you feel something , something you've never felt before — but it made you want to listen to him. "o-okay" he smiled. "good girl , let's go."

he pulled into the drive through , the lady spoke through the voice machine , he ordered what he want , turning to you getting your order before telling her what you want. "okay , you guys can pull up to the front window."

after getting your food , he placed it in your lap , driving off. you noticed he missed the exit to get back to your house , your eyes widening. "m-my house— i know." had that been any other person , you've would been shitting your pants , but with him surprisingly you felt safe. "i have place where we can eat our food and talk."

he drove for about ten more minutes , pulling into a old parking lot. "don't be so nervous." he said. "i would never put you in any harm , just relax." he said , grabbing the bag , taking the food out. "here you go." you shyly too the box of chicken nuggets , sitting them in your lap , he smiled. "cute."

he turned on a random tv show on his phone , sitting it up so you could see while you ate , occasionally making conversation with you , smiling when you shyly nod or avoided his eye contact — which never away , his eyes were always on you , watching everything you did.

"i-is th-there something on my face?" you said , looking for a napkin. "no , just like looking at you." you were flustered again , his constant flirting was going to kill you. "w-why?"

"because you're pretty." he said. "and i like staring at you." you quickly switched the subject. "i took all the notes down , i'll send them to you." he turned to you , laughing. "i didn't really mean for you to actually do my work for me princess." you began to pick at the string on your skirt again.

"hey." he grabbed your hands. "thank you , but don't worry your pretty little head about me." you nodded , and he let your hand go , this time resting his hand on your knee. "just relax , when you're with me that's all you have to do is relax."

he reached in the glove compartment , pull out a small metal can , opening it — revealing four pre-rolled joints. "sh-shotaro , what are you doing?" he smiled , taking one out , along with his lighter. "what does it look like?" he put the blunt to his mouth , about to light it. "b-but you can't drive if you're high."

"well then i guess you have to stay right here with me until im sober again." he light it up , taking a drag , inhaling , then exhaling. "you don't mind that do you." it probably should've bothered you , but it really didn't , you actually wanted to spend more time with him , this was probably the most you've been out in like forever. "i-i guess i don't mind."

you watched him take multiple drags , his body slumping further and further into the seat , he turned the radio on , r&b playing on a low volume as smoke filled the car. "you want to try?"

you shook your head. "i-i'm fine." you've never done something like that before , you wouldn't even know what to do. "why not , it will finally take your mind off everything." he said. "i-i've never done it before." of course you haven't. "i know , but that doesn't mean you can't try."

you thought about it before agreeing , what harm could it be. "s-sure." you said , he sat up , taking the blunt out of his mouth. "you don't have to , i won't force you (name)." he said. "i-i want to."

he nodded , you turned to him. "let me lead." you obey , and he held the blunt to your mouth. "open up." he tapped the blunt on your lips , you got that feeling again that you did earlier — parting your lips. "good girl , now close."

you obeyed , closing your lips. "now inhale it — not too much." he watched you closely , tapping your cheek with his finger , signaling you to stop , now hold it , that's it , just a little longer." the smoke filled your lungs. "now let go." you coughed , the smoke coming out of your mouth. "it's okay , it's okay." he patted your back. "it's always like that the first few times , you'll get the hang of it."

he let you hit it two more times , before he seem your eyes get redder and redder , before he was pulling it away from your lips. "that's enough , three is enough for someone like you."

you sat back , your body felt like it was melting into the seat. "look at you , finally relaxing." he smiled , you chuckled. "and you laughed , that's three wins for me today." he said. "three?" he hummed. "i got you to hang out with me , i got you relax and i got you to smile." he counted them.

he noticed you in your own world , picking with the hem of your skirt. "what's troubling that pretty head again?" he held your hands down once again. "wh-why did you want to hang out with me?" you said. "are you not having good time."

"n-no it's not that, it's just that , you've never paid attention to me before , wh-why all of sudden." he smiled , you were so clueless. "how would you know pretty , you alway have your head in the clouds , talking to yourself." your face heated up with embarrassment.

"do i really talk to myself?" you didn't evem realize you were doing it now , he laughed. "you're so cute." he rubbed your knee. "that's why i wanted to hang out with you , everything about you is so cute." your face was on fire , you turned out to face the window.

"especially when you get all shy , i find that so cute." he grabbed your jaw , turning it to face him. "why'd you turn away?" he smirked , his eyes fell to your lip , which you were chewing on. "am i making you nervous?"

you could barely comprehend what was going on , between the weed flowing through your system , and his hand resting on your leg , the other forcing you to look at him , it was all too much. "i really want to kiss you right now." your eyes widened.

"can i?" his thumb ran across your bottom lip , you nodded. "i need to hear you princess , use those words." you were afraid , not knowing what would come out. "y-yes , you can." he smiled , leaning in , his lips pressing against yours.

his lips felt nice , soft against yours. he could tell you were still nervous , pulling away. "look at you , your eyes all glazed over." he chuckled. "did you like it?" he questioned. "you want another one?" you nodded. "words pretty girl."

"i want another one." you said , your voice the most clear than has been , shotaro took notice of this. "how about you come sit right here and get it." he patted his lap , your eyes fluttered to his his lap , the to him. "y-your lap?" he nodded. "yeah , if you want to." you thought about it , you'd never even gone this far with a guy , but you wanted to — you wanted to go that far with shotaro. "o-okay."

you undid your seat belt , slowly climbing into his lap , hovering right above him. "let me help you." he grabbed your hips , pulling you down. "there you go pretty girl." his hands rested on your thighs , on of them coming up to caress your cheek. "just relax for me." he pulled you into another kiss.

you don't know if it was the weed , or his kisses , but you were on cloud nine and you didn't want to come down , he deeped the kiss , it was sloppy at first , but he allowed you to find your own pace , eventually getting the hang of it.

this was the best high of his life , he wish he could stay like this forever , in this moments , you on top of him , your lips against his , smoke still floodings the car , making it hotter than it already was.

the feeling from earlier was back and it was stronger than ever , traveling from your stomach to in between your legs , an almost unbearable , you couldn't help but move.

shotaro smirked , pulling away , you chased his lips desperately. "calm down." he whispered , against your lips. "you're getting so worked up princess , try and relax for me , you can have everything you want in a minute."

he wanted to make sure you really wanted this , that it wasn't just the weed talking. "you don't have to do this." he said. "i still really just want to hang out with you." he rested his forehead against yours. "i-i want to." you said. "i really want to."

his cock was hardening against his slacks , you were on top of him , your eyes blown out as you practically begged him to fuck you , grinding against him. "fu-fuck , if you keep grinding against me , im gonna cum in my pants." he grunted.

"i-i didn't mean to." he threw his head back against the headrest. "i know princess , i know you don't." he played with the ends of your shirt. "let's get you out of this." he lifted your shirt above your head , revealing your pink bra.

"so pretty baby , can i take it off?" you were about to nod , but deciding to skip that part , "y-yes." he smiled. "you finally caught on princess , keep using those words , let me hear that pretty voice." he reached behind you , undoing the hooks , letting your bra fall , your tits bouncing from the impact. "such pretty tits." his hand came up , engulfing your boobs , squeezing them.

"sh-shotaro." you moaned , and he was slowly losing it , you moaned so prettily , even prettier than he imagined. "so soft." he whispered , bringing his lips to your bud , sucking on it. "sh-shit , feels so good." you felt your panties soaking even more , you probably were making such a mess , but you couldn't care right now , you needed him.

oh couldn't hold it anymore , he needed to feel you , he needed to be inside you. "fu-fuck , fuck princess i need you , please i need to fuck you." he moaned , waiting for your word , once you gave it to him he was directing you to the back seat , laying you on your back.

"wanna taste you first." he sighed , kissing your stomach , making his way down to your skirt , lifting it up to your waist. "pretty panties." you whined , squirming your hips.

"relax , i told you , you'll get everything you want." he pulled your panties down your legs , he'll find them later — kissing right above your tailbone.

it was cramped , but that didn't stop him spreading your legs as much as he could , buring himself in between them , licking a strip up your cunt. "ohmygod." you moaned. "f-feels so good." he hummed against your heat , you moans only egging him on.

you tasted like heaven , this was his new drug , you were all he ever needed to feel high again , he pulled away , giving your clit little kitten licks. "you taste so good princess." his lips wet from your slick. "want my fingers?"

he rubbed your swollen bud , you nodded. "p-please." he pushed one finger into your hole. "your little cunt is barely taking my finger princess , i don't think im gonna fit." he added another finger , a slight sting making you hiss.

"it's okay , it's okay." he slowly thrusted his fingers into you , the pain slowly subsiding. "that's it , my fingers like a good girl." your stomach began to tighten. "you're clenching around my fingers." he rubbed your clit in circles. "you gonna cum?" you nodded. "go a head , cum on fingers , so i can make you do it again on my cock." he sped up his fingers , the band tighten more and more — before it snapped. "fuck 'taro , im cumming!" you screamed , cumming all over his fingers. "fuck!"

"good girl , fuck you came so much." he pulled his fingers out , bringing them back to his mouth , getting another taste , his cock twitching in his pants. "shit."

he undid his pants , pulling them down enough for his cock to spring out , resting against his stomach. his cock was big , a long vein adorned the side , his tip red , leaking with pre-cum. "are you sure you want , we don't have to go any further?"

you whined , reaching down grabbing his cock. "pl-please." your voice was desperate , as you stroked his cock. "i want it so much." you begged , shotaro cursed , grabbing your hand , replacing it with his own , lining himself up with your cunt. "i'll go slow."

and slow he did , sinking into your cunt , both of you letting out a moan. "fu-fuck , you're so fucking tight." his voice was shaky. "baby , you gotta stop clenching , im gonna cum." he grunted. "ca-can't help it." you mewled. "y-you're so big." he smirked , rocking his hips.

"yeah , you feeling full of my cock?" you moaned. "s-so full." he held your leg around his waist as he pounded into your needy hole. "you're so vocal now , what happened to my shy baby , where is she?" he grunted. "s-still here?" you moaned.

"yeah? she's still in there , but i like this version though , you moaning for me like a little slut." you tightened around his cock , making him hiss. "sh-shit , you like being called that?" he grunted , hitting that gummy spot. "there it is?" he continuously thrusted against that spot.

"my perfect girl , this is all just for me?" he rubbed your clit. "only i get to see you like this , all slutted out , right?" you felt your orgasm. "ye-yes , fuck 'taro im gonna cum." he kissed your lips. "go ahead , cum for me."

he pressed his forhead against yours , wrapping your leg around his waist , hitting deeper than before , trigger your orgasm. "taro fuck." you tightened around him hard. "oh shit." he didn't even have a chance , before he was spilling his cum into your cunt.

"sh-shit , im so sorry." he pulled out slowly , his cum seeping out of your cunt , his cock twitching at the sight , he didn't mean it this time , he can't be to sure next time. "i-its okay , i'm on birth control."

he let your leg go slowly , carefully just incase you were sore. "let me clean you up." he grabbed a tissue , carefully cleaning you off. "you did so well." he praised , your face turned hot. "st-stop it." you stuttered. "ah , there she is." he smiled. "so cute."

he helped you get dressed , you climbed out of the car , getting back into the passenger's seat , he climbed back into the drivers seat. "i don't want to take you back right now." he said slumped in his seat sad. "w-we c-can come back tomorrow." you said , he sat back up happily. "okay , i'll pick you up after class." he started the car , placing his hand on your thigh , much higher than before.

"maybe tomorrow you can put my cock in that pretty mouth of yours."

©️LUVYENI

[roanofarcc]

PROJECT SUNSHINE CHAPTER SIXTY THREE → THE FREAKSHOW

summary: steve harrington x oc || Ao3

when another product of Hawkins National Laboratory escaped a long-survived nightmare alongside her sister, she crashed into one unsuspecting teenage boy and dragged him deeper into the dark mysteries that made up their hometown.

word count. 2.7k || masterlist || ocs moodboard

warnings: cannon typical violence, child abuse, horror, gore, and depictions of mental illness. parts of this story were written pre-season 4 release. cannon divergence.

previous chapter ← → next chapter

Tagged. @sattlersquarry, @leptitlu, @two-sides-samecoin

The subdivision was quiet that afternoon. A strange calm had settled over Hawkins that spring, but Steve had learned not to let his guard down anymore. Nothing was ever calm in Hawkins, and his nerves were already pricked with Sunshine a couple of hours away in Indy with her sister. He knew she could handle herself if she ran into any trouble, and he tried to convince himself that she wouldn’t run into any trouble, but there had been a knot of worry tied inside his gut since he was little. He worried about everything, all of the time. The revelation of other dimensions, monsters, and bad men only made that knot worse. But he did his best to distract himself. 

“Turn your elbow like this,” Steve said, moving his arm to mimic the motion of the kid beside him. “It’ll help your aim.” 

Lucas fixed his arm and shot the basketball, putting it right through the old hoop Steve had dug out of his garage. Since Lucas told Steve he was thinking of trying out for the basketball team last fall, Steve had been helping him practice. Between all of his high school highs and lows, basketball had been the only consistent thing for Steve, and something he still enjoyed. It served as a normal distraction for both of them, but especially Lucas. The kid was really good too and made varsity his freshman year. And while he most rode the bench, Lucas had too much potential to stay there forever.

The ball bounced against the cement and Lucas raced to grab it, dribbling it back down the driveway to where Steve stood. He was quieter than normal; Steve was the only person, besides Lucas’s dad, who the kid could have an actual conversation about basketball with. His friends weren’t interested in it, and Steve wasn’t sure of the last time Lucas had a full conversation with Max, to everyone’s dismay. 

“You all right, Sinclair?” Steve asked. 

He shrugged, eyes glued to the ball. “This game’s a big deal, right?” 

“A really big deal,” Steve replied. There were only a handful of times Hawkins High made it to the championship of anything. “But, you know, all you can do is play your best.” 

Lucas snorted a sarcastic laugh. “You sound like Sunshine.” 

Steve smiled. “Occupational hazard.” She had rubbed off on him, even more so since they were dating. Her sunny disposition and pep talks, along with her adoration of the simple things in life. He saw the world differently with her, and not just the bad stuff that crawled out of portals or gates. The world was a scary place, but it also held a lot of good stuff, you just had to look through the weeds and interdimensional vines to see it. 

“I know the pressure can be tough, but you’ll be fine.” 

Lucas held the ball in his hands, slumping his shoulders slightly. “It’s not just that. This game is important to me, but Mike and Dustin want me to skip it for the D&D campaign. I guess Eddie refuses to reschedule.” 

Steve rolled his eyes. He didn’t really know the guy, their paths rarely crossed in high school. Either Steve was running with Tommy and Carol, too busy to notice nerds like Eddie Munson, or he was sulking in his fall from grace and reeling from monsters and bullies. He’d heard of Eddie, in a small town it was impossible to not know everyone, whether you liked to or not. Rumor had it he was some super-senior drug dealer, and that sounded like the last person Steve wanted hanging around the party. But Dustin refuted the rumors and made Eddie out to be some kind of king of the nerds. 

It was embarrassing, and Steve hadn’t even admitted it aloud to Sunshine yet, but he was a little jealous of the Hellfire Club caption. Sure, on paper, he was probably the cooler person to hang out with in the eyes of Dustin because he loved the same game they did, but Steve had thought that he and Dustin were the ultimate duo. He was like Steve’s little brother, annoying and sometimes a pain in the ass, but someone Steve couldn’t see not in his life. But it seemed like Dustin was no longer interested in hanging out with him. 

It made Steve feel even more useless to the gaggle of teens, like he really didn’t have a place in the grand scheme of their monster-hunting team anymore.

“Your friends can’t miss one campaign to come watch you play?” Steve asked, shoving aside his own weird issues with some dude he’d never even talked to before. 

“Guess not.” 

“Well, what about Max?” 

Lucas sighed again, hugging the ball to his chest like he was trying to get some kind of comfort from it. “She still won’t talk to me. She hardly talks to Mike or Dustin. Every time I try, she shrugs me off with some excuse. I don’t know what else to do.” 

Max didn’t like change, which Steve figured out very quickly after getting to know Max. Moving across the country was one thing, but what she’d experienced since being in Hawkins was another beast. No one could blame her, they all just wished she’d let them help her. Sunshine seemed to be the only one who could get through to her somewhat. She shut the party out, caved in on herself. Lucas was the most distraught over it. 

“There’s not much you can do,” Steve said. “You can try to be there for her, but you can’t magically make everything better.” 

“It just sucks. We know people with superpowers and know there’s another dimension, but we can’t, like, fix any of the shit we’ve been through. We just have to take it and pretend like…like it’s fine.” 

It was beyond frustrating, but that had become their lives. Steve’s mind glazed over it, trying hard not to think too much about it until the world threatened to end again. 

“Look on the bright side, you’ve only got four more years here. Then you can play basketball at some D1 school, pretend like Hawkins was some fucked up nightmare or something.” 

Lucas laughed but it was mixed with a little scoff. “Yeah, if I live that long,” he muttered, and Steve’s gut turned uncomfortably. He didn’t like that, jokes like that were too real. “And if they ever let me off the bench.” He tossed the ball at Steve, who caught it despite being slightly thrown off guard. 

Dribbling the ball, back up the driveway, Steve shoved away the pit in his stomach and focused on the task at hand. “Hey, with my help, you might even get to play in the championship.”

“Yeah,” he replied, sarcastically. “I might even win the whole thing.” 

→←

“This feels…unethical,” Will Byers said, chewing nervously on his nails as he stood lookout for Leia. 

She stopped, turning her head to look at him. “Really? I could name ten unethical things that have been done to the two of us alone. This, my dearest brother, is good ole’ fashioned revenge.” She balanced a cup of red paint on the locker shelf with a fishing wire around it. Carefully, she threaded the wire through the slit in the door and fashioned it so that as soon as the locker was opened, the cup would be pulled forward and spill on the unlucky but well-deserving bully. 

“I doubt she’s even read Carrie. Angela and her friends aren’t going to get the prank.” 

Leia sighed, cautiously looking up and down the empty hall. “They don't need to ‘get it.’ All that matters is that Angela is covered in red paint. She deserves a lot worse for laughing at El’s project, but Joyce said we’re grounded if we commit a crime.” 

“Technically, I think she said we’re grounded if we’re caught committing a crime.” 

Leia paused before she shrugged. “If this doesn’t work, then I’ll think of something illegal. Until then…” She dusted her hands off on her paint-stained overalls from an art project gone slightly rouge and clapped Will on the shoulder. He had grown even taller since their move, Joyce said it was probably the sun that was making all of them grow like weeds, but Will still curled into himself and tried to make himself smaller among their new Cali-folk. 

While Leia probably should have been more wary about a new school, but she had a different view of it. She had never attended any kind of school, so she had no expectations. Bullies didn’t bother her because she was good at brushing them off. All of the teasing from Kali’s friends made her skin thick and she had a little voice in her head reminding her she had superpowers and they didn’t; it made her feel better. 

Will flew under the radar too. He was quiet and good at blending in, making himself a small target. Luke followed in his footsteps, spending most of his time tucked away in the library which most kids avoided besides the nerdy and quiet ones. It was El that caught all of the flack. 

By some unlucky chance, she had caught the eye of a blonde-headed all-American mean girl the second she stepped through the school doors. El was kind, she wanted to be friends with everyone but had a hard time picking up on social cues. And the second Angela got a whiff of El’s slight unusualness, she latched on like a hungry shark. How some freshman had a cult following of brightly dressed, rich friends who would do anything she said, Leia had no idea. It was like they stumbled into the set of a movie riddled with cliches that Leia thought weren’t actually supposed to happen in real life. Yet, there Angela was, laughing at El while she tried to present a project she had worked really hard on. Apparently cruelty earned you cheap laughs; Leia wanted to fry Angle to a crisp. 

She had to settle for ruining the bully’s outfit. 

The bell rang, singling the end of class. Leia and Will stood innocently at the water fountain and subtly watched as Angela and her clique waded down the hall, her blonde ponytail swinging with each step. She arrived at her locker, entered her combo, and yanked it open. Out poured the red paint, splashing down the front of Angela’s shirt. She let out a shrill scream that echoed through the hall, causing people to stop. 

Angela wiped her hands against the paint, smearing it into the fabric and getting a layer coating her palms and fingers. It looked like blood, but the smell of paint quickly filled the air, making the hall smell just like the art room. 

Leia hid her laughter under her hand while Will pressed his lips in a thin line, suppressing a smile. They watched as Angela’s friends surrounded her like a flock of birds. She swatted them away and turned out from her locker with her face nearly as red as the paint. Leia couldn’t hear what she said, but without even cleaning herself up, she took off toward the doors that led to the courtyard of the school. 

“Okay,” Will said with a laugh. “You were right; that was great!” 

Leia beamed. “I’ve got more where that came from.” 

He shook his head, a lightness in his tone that only came out from time to time now. “Come on, let’s go find Luke and El. They’ll want to hear about this.” 

Unfortunately, their two siblings did hear about the red paint stunt because El was the first person Angela assumed had pranked her. By the time Leia and Will entered the courtyard, El was sprawled out against the ground with her project in pieces along the sidewalk. Angela was standing the closest to El, her arms crossed and laughing along with the rest of her friends who stood on the sidelines. 

El’s face was grief-stricken, and that alone was enough to send Leia running towards her sister. She jammed her shoulder into Angela’s sending the blonde stumbling. El stood and outstretched her hand in a similar way she once did when she used to abilities; it was a reflex, one that would probably take El a long time to shake since she had lost her abilities last summer. Before El did anything to give Angela further ammunition, Leia grabbed El’s arm gently and pushed it back down at her side. 

Angela seemed satisfied with sending El and her project to the ground and turned to leave, her front half still coated in paint. A tear fell from El’s eye as she glanced at her broken project. With a gentle sigh, Leia tried to channel her anger into something more helpful for El; it was what Sunshine told her to do when she felt her anger gain control of her, fueling her abilities and asking for something bad to happen. Leia grabbed a hold of El’s shoulder, making her sister look at her. 

“Are you okay?” 

El frowned, wiping away her tears. She nodded sadly, slumping her shoulders. 

“It’s my fault,” Leia said. “I pranked Angela, but I should have known she’d think it was you. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” El tried to smile, but it was weak and turned back into a frown when her eyes landed on the pieces of her project. 

Will and Luke started picking them up, placing them back in the slightly crushed shoe box. “We can fix it,” Will said with confidence in his voice. He pinched a squirrel figurine in between his fingers before holding it out to El. She grabbed the squirrel and closed her fist around it. “We’ll all help, and it’ll be good as new, all right?” 

“All right,” El said quietly. She joined the boys on the ground while Leia scooped out the surrounding area in case any pieces went flying off of the sidewalk and onto the grass. She spotted a couple of popsicle sticks and gathered them before she turned around. Directly behind her was one of her classmates, who sat beside Leia in art class. 

Startled, Leia gasped, and the girl’s eyes widened before a sheepish smile fell across her lips. “Sorry!” Abby said. “Didn’t mean to scare you, I just found this.” She held out a small hat that El had made to resemble Hopper’s police hat. 

“Thanks,” Leia said, taking the hat with a small ache in her chest. Not a day went by where she didn’t think about Hopper; she missed him, but Joyce was doing everything she could to make the three of them feel a part of their family. It wasn’t the same though. They weren’t in that little cabin in the woods, eating Eggos and watching black-and-white detective movies. 

Abby shoved her hands in her pockets and rocked back and forth in her busted sneakers. She didn’t dress like most of the kids at school; her shoes were dirty and her clothes were mended with patches of different colors. Her hair was pin straight and black, with thick bangs cut barely above her eyes. She was odd but in a good way. Abby was always bouncing on her heels or tapping her hands against the tabletop. She spoke quickly but with so much enthusiasm it made Leia feel happy too. 

“Angela’s a jerk,” Abby said. “I’m glad someone finally did something, even if it didn’t end super well.” 

Leia pocketed the hat with a sigh. “I should have used real pig’s blood.” 

“You stole the pain from the art room?” 

“Guilty.”

Abby laughed. “That’s amazing! Oh, I would have killed to see her face!” Leia laughed too; it was impossible for her not to. Abby’s laugh was infectious, which often got them into trouble in art when they couldn’t spot giggling in the middle of class.

“Leia, are you ready?” Will called from several feet away. They had cleaned up El’s project and Luke was carrying it in his arms, probably in case Angela had any other ideas. Luke was a little taller and broader, harder to knock down. 

Abby gave Leia a smile before she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, she turned on her feet and headed across the yard, leaving Leia with a friendly giddiness bubbling inside her chest. 

Leia rushed over to her siblings, handing the hat off to El. Together, they all walked back into school, El sandwiched between them. The Hopper-Byers weren’t a typical group of siblings, but it was as if they were destined to be family all along. Maybe they radiated the idea that they didn’t belong, slotted pieces of different puzzles that somehow fit, but there was no denying that they belonged together as a family. 

[honoviadakai]

How I think the Hazbin crew are as parents 🏨

(CW: mentions of child abuse in Alastor’s section, mentions of Valentino and Angel’s past, mentions of Husk’s past with Alastor)

Charlie:

Absolutely a loving mother

Maybe a little too loving

You know how she comes across as too sweet to her friends, loved ones and complete strangers?

Yeah that's not changing with her kids

I’m not even entirely sure she’s gonna discipline her kids

I genuinely believe if her kids are acting up, her main issue is that she’s “a bad mom” and she’s gonna spiral in front of her kids so badly that they’re just gonna stop acting up and behave

She also strikes me as the type of parent that a little too involved in their kid’s lives

Sometimes it’s good because she’s showing interest in her kids lives and really, who doesn’t want that from their parents?

But like…sometimes you don’t need your parents to know everything that’s going on in your life, ya feel me?

There is such a thing as too supportive

And Charlie is that overly supportive, overly optimistic mom that kinda tries a little too hard to be a “cool��� mom that can be friends with her kids and all their friends

It’s embarrassing

But her kids know deep down that she’d die for them in a heartbeat

They just wish she wasn’t so…extra

Vaggie:

She’s simultaneously the chill parent and the scary parent you just don’t fuck with

She strikes me as someone who lives by the saying “respect is not given, it’s earned”

She respects her kids boundaries and desires(within reason) and they in turn give that same respect back

And because of that, breaking her trust/respect is a no no

Like if she has a kid that tells her that they’re gonna hang out with friends, and she finds out they they lied and they went to a sex club to drink and do drugs, God help that kid

Worst part is that I feel like if she’s reeeeeally mad and hurt, her anger is silent and cold

That’s when her kids know someone fucked up bad

But as long as no one breaks anyone else’s trust/respect, all is good and her kids know they can go to her for anything and she’ll do her best to help

Alastor:

Oh god

I feel so sorry for any kids this mf has

Like probably wouldn’t cuz he’s aro/ace and Viv has confirmed in past streams he’s not really someone who’d want kids or even properly take care of kids

But let’s just pretend he has one or two

He’s not gonna be a great dad

First of all, I fully believe his parenting style is gonna change drastically depending on if he’s around sons or daughters

Any daughters he has are going to be treated like royalty

He’ll gladly have tea parties with them

He’ll gossip with them and ofc auntie Rosie

He’ll even drop everything he’s doing to treat them a girls day with them, complete with a spa day, shopping and fine dining

Any sons he has will probably have the opposite situation

Al would take little, if any interest in their lives

Once they learn to walk, talk and have awareness of the world around them, they’re practically on their own

If they’re hungry, they better learn to cook

If they need new clothes, they can earn the money for new clothes or make it themselves

If they want their father’s attention, they have to earn it & that usually means they have to be exactly like him for him to even start to care about his sons

This behavior most likely stems from how his mother treated him in life vs how his father treated him

Look at how he treats characters like Rosie, Mimzy and Niffty vs characters like Husk, Lucifer and Vox

It does unfortunately carry over into how he disciplines his kids

The girls will get lecturers and they’ll be grounded

If they did something particularly bad, he might spank them or hit their hands with a ruler or something but nothing extreme

His sons though…they’ll most likely receive beatings…

No lectures

Just cold, unyielding, lashes

Alastor’s really just someone who shouldn’t be a father…or at least, not have sons

Angel Dust:

He’d be such a good dad!

This man would die for his kids in a heartbeat!

He is a tad overprotective of them tbh

He absolutely does not want them near the p0rn district of Hell, especially if Valentino is there

He would sell his soul again to get his kids out of a contract but he’d rather avoid a situation where his kids have sold their souls outright

He’s also fair when it comes to exploring substances

He understands they’re all in hell and teenagers get curious

That being said, he’s flat out warn them with lighter stuff like alcohol and weed what it feels like to be drunk/high and what the side effects are

Stuff like cocaine though? No, absolutely not

He’ll tell them exactly what it’s like and why it’s not worth it

“The high ain’t worth it, you’ll feel worse than shitty once you’ve sobered up and you’re lucky if you just get a headache in the days after.”

His kids respect that he’s upfront with his knowledge so they usually take his word on it and heed his advice

He does try to hide a bit of his past from them

Not in a “they must never know” kinda way

It’s more like a “they’re too young to fully understand the severity of the shit I went through” kinda deal

Once they’re older, he’ll be honest about everything with them if they ask

Very supportive of his kids

They know they can come to him about anything and they usually do

Like if one of his kids comes out to him as trans for example, first thing he’s gonna do is smile and let them know that regardless of any physical changes, he still loves them

Will absolutely help them with a new wardrobe, hair style and even get them a pin or flag, whatever they’d like more

He also loves cooking with his kids

In those moments where they’re cracking jokes, spilling this week’s latest tea and just being a happy family that makes him realize he finally found that tomorrow to live for

Husk:

Another good dad!

A bit of an odd dad, but still a good dad

Part of why I say he’d be an odd dad is cuz a lot of his cat like instincts go into overdrive

For example: it’s quite common for cats to clean their kittens with their tongues

He loves his kids, he wants to keep them clean, he can’t stop himself from cleaning his babies

Hell take lots of cat naps with his kids in sunny spots at every opportunity he has

He purrs a lot more when his kids are around and just chillin

He also meows a lot at his kids when they newborn - toddler aged

The other part of his oddness as a father comes from the fact that he’s an older man and is oddly chill in times where you’d expect him to blow up

Like if he they’re helping him clean and they accidentally break something, he won’t get mad at them

Hell make a shitty joke

“Don’t work kiddo, gravity ain’t exactly our friend. Bitch probably hates us cuz we can fly.”

He also develops a sixth sense for kids, specifically when they’re about to do something stupid

To be fair, his best friend lover is Angel Dust so it’s not hard for him to sense stupidity

Tell me this isn’t the face of a man who felt a stupid thought and immediately pinpointed exactly who had said thought

It’s stronger with his kids

The second they think something stupid like “Dad can drink an entire bottle of ever clear and be fine, so I should be able to as well” he immediately shuts that shit down

He could be clear across pentagram city and still have his dad sense go off and he’ll reflexively call his kids while he’s sprinting in their general direction

Funnily enough he's absolutely the kind of dad who of he sees his kid come in with a bloody nose and he senses the situation isn't dangerous, he asks "did you win?"

If his kid answers yes, he high fives them XD

If they say no, they talk mad shit together

He’s a very blunt man so ofc he’s a very blunt dad

He’ll warn his kids about people like Al and why you can’t trust everyone

He’ll impart his wisdom on how to read people so they can keep themselves safe

He’ll also warn them about biting off more than they can chew so they don’t end up selling their souls to someone like Al like he did

He’s also very honest about his past

He knows his kids aren’t dumb so they’ll find out the truth eventually and he’d rather it’s through him than Alastor

In general he’d just rather not have Al messing with his kids

He’s also a actions over words kinda guy

So while he will tell his kids he loves them verbally, hes gonna do things for them more often than not

Like if they’re having a bad day, he’ll make them their favorite meal and let them vent for as long as they need to

If they cry, he won’t say a word, he’ll just pull them into a hug and let them cry out all their sadness and frustration

Even if it’s something as simple as them just not sleeping well the night before and waking up crabby, he’ll wordlessly make their favorite breakfast and take them out for a personal day later

He’s got a gruff exterior but his kids will only ever know his softer side if he has anything to say about it

Niffty:

….I’m conflicted with this one

On one hand, I know for a fact she could handle the house work and child rearing on her own

She’s got endless energy and is more than capable so the practical stuff isn’t the issue

It’s the actual raising of any potential children

Like if they aren’t genetically born with her unhinged personality, I feel like that’s something that they’re definitely gonna learn to do as they grow older

I also kinda feel like she’d let them be do things they just shouldn’t be doing

Like you know how she was in the oven while baking cookies???

Yeah…she’d have little to no issues with her kids doing that

That’s not to say she doesn’t love her kids!

She does with every fiber of her being!

Which is terrifying

Like remember how she scared the shit out of Val for messing with Angel?

Bare in mind, Angel is her friend, and she still went out of her way to make Valentino feel scared

Imagine someone messing with her kids

They would not survive

I’d even go so far as to that her protectiveness of her children would scare even Alastor

I do genuinely think she’d be a pretty good mom

But I feel like for the safety of everyone in hell, she shouldn’t have kids

Both because one Nifty is all we need and a Nifty with malicious intent is a force not even Lucifer could stop

Sir Pentious:

He’d be such an embarrassing dad

His kids would absolutely love and adore him without question

But he’s such a dork and even his kids see this

He uses modern slang incorrectly to his kids friends

He’d wear what he thought was fashion that’s “hip with youths” in public

And you bet every penny you have that he’s gonna do TikTok dances in public…horribly

Mans is the embodiment of this meme ⬆️

But he loves his kids and he’d do anything for them

He’s gonna fumble along the way

But that’s never gonna stop him from doing his best

He’s also a bit awkward and over the top in how he shows his love for his kids

Like if a birthday is coming up and he knows his kid wants a new phone but he has no idea what phone model they specifically wanted, he’s buying every model available

Sure he coulda just asked, but that makes way too much sense

Buying one of every phone makes much more sense 😤

Same thing with treats

His kid is having a bad day and he knows they like chocolate?

He’s buying all the chocolate in pentagram city

Why?

For chocolate related emergencies

He’s so ever the top but his kids low key love that about him

[bluebutlikenotalways]

Will You Be Redesigning The Other Three Los Campeons?

I’ll answer these both at the same time!

1. I do want to, but like I don’t have as clear an idea for Fly, Pro and Rayo. (I do have a rule 63 design for Pro though because I think it’d be funny) Rayo’s might be out in the next…five months??? Who knows.

2. Just Hcs because you already know my fave (ik you send that ask to my main. A lot of folks don’t know it’s the same person lol)

LETS START WITH JR

Man does not sleep, because sleep is for the weak and he is always on that grind 💪 Because of this his ability to make choices is hindered (which is the only possible reason he chose not to let Sorpresa join the team I say jokingly) and it also gives him a shorter fuse, as if it wasn’t short enough.

He’s already got some anger issues from his father, but most of his fight outside of the ring are just gas so he’ll rarely start a physical fight.

Still trying his best to outgrow his father’s shadow, but his team is worried it’ll all go to his head instead. He is one to brag whenever things really go his way so the next step in his hero’s journey has better be humility

In his first match with Rayo he got his elbow broken and that was how Rayo got thrown out of his first club and why I draw Jr with a brace.

Nepo baby, like big time. He’s a rich kid and they all know it, but he tries not to flaunt his wealth. His father’s influence however…

Grew up around the ring and knew “Tío Blanco y Verde” before his father left that team. Hadn’t seen them in a long time, which is why he didn’t recognize either of their voices.

Used to love his fathers old movies until he realized just how big a legend he had to live up to, now it just makes him feel sick when he sees them knowing his dad was only a few years older than he was then when they were made and he had only just secured a main event. Not so fun feeling like you’ve fallen behind.

Refuses to touch alcohol or drugs of any kind so he doesn’t fuck up his body. His father started losing his shape when he started drinking more and smoking cigars, so he’s seen the road gone down before.

He’s gonna start wearing contacts eventually so he can play into his Dragon roll more.

Up next the grappling goth himself, Rayo X!

He is the second shortest.

This isn’t even a hc, I just wanted to show you their hight comparisons

He is not as physically strong as the others because he put more of his stats into agility and precision. Pressure points and the ability to use his opponents weight against them is key, but he’s still stronger than your average cat. Guy can throw a fully grown man over his head, what do you expect?

Autistic. HEAR ME OUT! Doesn’t like being touched by anyone, the only one who wrestles in gloves, hangs out in a quiet coffin and works better in the dark. “But that’s no-“ Just trust me bro.

He’s a little limp wristed, but you know. Happens to the best of us.

His character is a sullen goth who’s like this serious guy and kinda scary, but out of character he’s a little shit emo kid who’s starting to dwindle into scene.

Has an older brother, also cannon now I think, and isn’t really on the best terms with him. Still he got on great with his mother and his father used to take him to work and he’d hide in the coffins to try and scare his dad.

Isn’t intentionally rude, but does come off that way pretty easily so he just kinda ran with that when making a character. Because of this he dances on the edge between técnico and rudo, but still leans more towards face because he likes coming across as a hero.

When he was banned from every promotion and couldn’t find a job he ended up doing a few death matches. You’ll find a lot of scars under all that gear and he’ll no longer use thumb tacks if he can avoid it.

Mr Professional

Has a $tan Pines-ass backstory with him getting kicked out of his own home when he was young and having his kid sister run away so she could stick with himself

Where am I getting this?

I just like the drama I guess :)

Big personality in the ring, but is kinda timid outside of it. A little shy, but still good at talking with folks. He’s still more a party dog type of guy

I think he’d collect sweaters, sense were already ripping off the Pines family here, and tea, because once again this guy is pretty chill.

[tbh a masked wrestler would fit right into gravity fa//s if I’m being real)

Has a cat that he had to leave with his sister when he moved to Mexico and when he calls her he makes her turn on face time so she can talk to it DX

Still looking for a house and might end up moving in with Fly now that Sorpresa has moved out.

Knew Fly for a while before moving away and knew Sorpresa too, but never knew she worked as his valet because he thought she was his daughter.

If any of his team mates find themselves in a fight she will be the one to end it.

Cross dressing cowboy? Why not. He brought it with him to Mexico for some reason 😭

Tsetse Fly!

Met Sorpresa’s aunt first when he was teamed with her for a comedy act which neither of them wanted to be a part of. They ended up whipping their opponents so hard they were belt holders for a month before Sorpresa’s aunt was scouted by a woman’s wrestling promotion. She was going to stay with Fly, but he told her to take her chance when she had one so she moved on. To Fly’s surprise she kept in touch and she ended up steering her towards her sister so they could wrestle together instead.

He actually got really close with the Sorpresa family, so much so that he’s Sorpresa’s god father.

This man is a big pipe smoker. He used to sit outside, smoke and just stare at the clouds. When Sorpresa was younger she’s sit on the floor next to him and bug him till he taught her some of his moves.

He’s a ladies man, again cannon but you know, and is dating one of his ring girls. (I have Hcs for them too, but no names 😔) but it’s an open relationship because you can’t clip this fly’s wings XD

Because of his dwarfism he does have some health complications with his bone structure and his breathing, so he takes the great precautions of not giving a shit and it’s working apparently because he’s doing fine enough.

He’s not the step dad he’s the dad that stepped up🫡 Helped raise Sorpresa during her preteens to teenage years by “babysitting” (sneaking her into matches and buying her first beers) while her mother was busy and became her legal guardian the last few months before she turned 18. He was planning on finding her a job and a place to stay before moving up to the states but she insisted on coming with him and here they are! She did get tired of living with him though.

Did not realise he became a dad until everyone started calling Sorpresa his daughter.

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The trickster of torture, the shocker of slaughter, the kick back of calamity

¡SORPRESA!

We have found the youngest! She has been training since she was popped out. Like this girl learned how to do a headlock before she could crawl and was beating her parents without them going easy on her when she was in her teens. She’s been ready to carry on her family’s legacy for a long time now.

If you’ve been around for a while you know what Hc I usually give my faves 😌

🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥🇿🇦💥

Afro Latina! Her mother is from Mexico and her father was from South Africa (Mzansi <3) but her father died when she was little so there’s not much to be said on him from her pov. She also doesn’t connect to her South African roots as much sense no one was there to help her learn them. (She’s Xhosa just in case you wanted to know)

There’s gonna be a great big lull between her helping to save a village of monsters and finding someone to sign her so, with some help from Rayo, she joins death matches. She was pretty good at both letting her nerves get the better of her, but it definitely took some getting used to. However she found herself pretty handy with a chain and if that failed she had her trusty bat! You’ll find her avoiding barbed wire at all costs tho 😞

She dropped out of high school at 16 to focus on wrestling and is very worried that she made the wrong choice

Her mother is in jail!

I think it would be funny if her cousins were punctuation themed. Like one of them was called like (google translate Spanish) “Pregunta?” And had a question mark on her head and so on. I think it’d be funny.

Speaking of cousins! She’s cousins with Ricochet! Mama Maniaca is one of her relatives that grew too far apart to wear her family mask.

Sorpresa has no idea what she’s doing but she’s doing it really well. She might not always be prepared for a situation, but she is great at coming up with solutions. You could even say this is the greatest plaaan-er. She’s quick on her feat and can roll with the punches easy.

Speaking of being quick, she is the fastest on the team, which was decided when she finally managed to take Rayo down lol.

Speaking or Rayo, tag team partners for life right there, hell she’s moving in with him with him! That’s her favourite person who isn’t family or dating. In other words, her best friend!

She and Jr had an on again off again relationship for a while until she finally sat him down and told him that unless it was going somewhere she wasn’t interested in all that drama. He stepped the fuck up after that.

She’s gonna usurp the role of leadership from Jr eventually. I can feel it in my knees. Either that or co- leaders. Rayo is only a little salty about it.

She is actually friends with the other valets. They would sneak her drinks because she was too young to buy them in the states (oh but back home it’s FINE! America’s drinking age is so dumb WHAT THW FUCK)

Despite knowing Pro for a few years they weren’t all that close, but now that they’ve started working together she’s enjoying his company a lot more than she thought.

The big part of her character is to be surprising, so whenever she’s in the ring she’ll do a lot of back stabbing. Her and her family are all rudos originally, but she’ll play técnico when she’s teaming. Being bad is just more fun.

Never let them know your next move.

If she was ever teamed with Fly she would have played big time into the comedy aspect to take the attention off Fly. We all know how he reacts when someone makes fun of him.

Here when she was younger she really wanted to be a dancer and she almost went down that route, until she met Fly and he showed her how wrestling was just like a more dangerous form of dance and she was hooked. Still enjoys dancing, going to a dance studio is still one of her favourite date spots.

Most of her strength comes from her core, so she’s good at staying stable in a fight, but she started strength training after the events of the movie to help her keep up with her team.

In one of her first matches she fought a woman who glued broken glass to the bottom of her boots and was very lucky not to lose an eye when she got kicked in the side of the head. Shes got some pretty wicked scars on the right side of her face now, but they’re hidden well enough under her mask. You can just see the one near her eye if it’s shits enough. (I haven’t draw it yet, so you won’t see it in my art 😔)

Despite being a really good wrestler she is the one with the most left to learn, but she’s getting there.

I have so many more but this post has gotten long enough. Thank you so much for the ask <3

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 8- Part 14

That’s concerning- was it the “Sc” thing the one guy tried warning us about? What could he have been talking about…a Pokémon? Scraggy? Scrafty? Those seem like the kinds of Pokémon that would hang out down here.

But we can’t dwell on that right now! Prong has become electric bug, and I’ve had something planned for when she evolved since we beat Julia…

Prong my dear, your time has arrived.

SHE IS READY TO START BLASTING!!

AND ALSO WE FOUND THIS!

Oh! Okay- it happened faster than I could screenshot it, but I saw a group of…something running down in that area below this one. I think they were Mankey? Does this mean we can catch Mankey somewhere?

But also- item over there!! Move over, kid!

Huh- we can’t even battle him to get him out of the way? Well, there’s gotta be some way to get to that item back there. I see another elevator back there, maybe that’ll be something.

Okay, Yungoos- again, not too bad, not too scary, we’ll just Gust it again.

Also, these slum Trainers really like putting Pursuit on their Pokémon, huh? This Yungoos has it, the Dunsparce had it, I think that Pansear had it? Or maybe not the Pansear, I already forget, but some other Pokémon had it.

You know what, this is the most justified random Trainer battle we’ve had in this chapter, arguably in the whole game so far, let’s just let this guy live his life.

Yeah, I also should have expected drug stuff to come into play down here to some extent too.

Okay, what’s this now? Another…Arceus ring fragment thing? Is Arceus still clipping through the map? At least this one is on the ground and not on a rooftop, so we can actually find out what it is this time.

They do, huh? Then…what’s their purpose?

Oh, that’s its purpose- it’s like a healing spot! And here I’ve been leaving and running back forth to the Pokémon Center up north between each battle- if I’d known this was here and what it did, I probably wouldn’t have done that so much. Consequently, we don’t need it right now, so we’ll have to save it for later.

I mean, fair, but you’re telling that to the wrong person, buddy.

And there’s Victoria again! So we’re definitely going the right direction (as if there was anywhere else to go), but I’m gonna look around this little area first before talking to her.

Previous

Next

[boqvistsbabe]

Ok so fun gossip I heard

- 2 of the hockey boys had been secretly (nothing is actually a secret to me) dating for like 2 years but one is a science god who weightlifts competitively and plays 2/3 other sports very well and the other dropped out to smoke weed so they don't talk anymore and that is almost definitely the stoners fault and the nice really smart one is now stuck with a bunch of assholes because that was his only friend and he doesn't know that the queer femmes would adopt him to carry our bags

- there's a really popular girl who reads like Harry potter and colleen hoover (this is irrelevant I just like slander) exclusively who wants to be a radical politician but has never read any theory and don't follow politics

- the self appointed queen bee who cheated on her decent blonde bf by hooking up with her ex bffs abusive ex and then she left him for blondie and now has an on and off throuple with blondie and his besties, both of them are proclaimed straight and all of the are friends with shithead

- same queen bee and blondie, she posted on her til tok her rice purity score and it said that she had never come during sex, they were together for like 5 years and she has caught him watching porn while they fuck

- the annoying ass conservative dude who is like 6'6 and is the bad bitch lesbians man servant (he says friend but idk) started a fight with a known tiny 14 year old gang member and when a knife got pulled his mom, who works at the school, called the cops, same day a kid got stabbed in the head with a pencil during math but that was unrelated

- the grade 11 gymrat that my friends and I are fairy gay parenting into leftism at the start of the year believed that drug dealers deserve the death sentence (we are canadian???) and his ex gf's brother is in prison for petty drug crimes and his new gf is a scary bisexual weed dealer but I influenced him to be way better and they are a power couple

- all of the boys bathrooms are missing the soap dispenser and the mirrors, sinks and toilet seats are regularly stolen also once a custodian quit after having just walked into the main one

- we had a 3 hour secure school because a girl punched the librarian and the librarian passed out and then the girl hid somewhere in the school

- at a beach party during the summer my favourite random school person (you know what I mean, right?) was super drunk and shot a firework at the police, put his Crocs in sport mode and then ran away, successfully as well

- same dude had a job at an arcade and would break in during the night to just vibe with the lasers and run around drinking and smoking I guess, he also once hid from the cops in a tree, he postef all of this on his snap

I can't think of other big ones but this should do for now

Omg it’s been forever and a day since you sent this but I’m still gonna react to this lol

- okay first of all what a story second of all I feel bad for the one guy 😢

- okay but like that checks out based on the books soooo

- wild absolutely wild. First of all cheating is so bad but somehow who she cheated with made it even worse? Also throuple?!

- NOTHING IN FIVE YEARS?! WHAT IS BRO DOING WRONG (obvi everything but like omg) also while they fuck? 🫢

- man servant I love 💀💀 also hang member? ! And a pencil stabbing? That’s a lot on one day

- death sentence?! Omg?! Literally what? Also ur so slay for that tho

- it’s giving devious licks 💀😭 also that’s so real

- why did she punch the librarian 😭 like what

- (ik what u mean, i love my random people) AT?! Also putting the crocs in sport mode then running is such a funny picture

- this guy sounds like such a vibe tbh

[popculturebuffet]

A Sizeable Giant Days Retrospective Part Deux: Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town (Issues 1-8) (Sponsored by Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy people! And we are back baby! For those just joining us last month I started a look at one of my faviorite comic books of all time, Giant Days. You can find part one here

Last time we covered the first three self published issues, which were done to get the series picked up monthly. Through some scott pilgrim and death metal growing pains, the series slowly found it's voice and it paid off as at a convention John talked to a representative from Boom! Studios. They were looking for young adult works to fill out their boom box imprint, Giant Days seemed to be a good fit despite skewing a tad older, and the rest is history.

This didn't mean the series was safe: As they tended to do at the time for non liscsned books, the series started as a mini series: 6 issues and if it was succesful, it'd be picked up for an ongoing, with disney vet Lissa Treiman joining on art chores. The series was thankfully a near instant hit along with fellow Boom Boxer Lumberjanes, and like Lumberjanes would last the longest out of the line. If I had to guess why it's a combo of Allison's gilmore girls level zingers. Fun fact: I forgot he was a fan before writing part 1 but he is, comparing a draft of a giant days sequel he tried to make to Gilmore Girls; A Year in the Life.

Yeah best give it time Johnny. But hopefully he can find his way back to these characters eventually in a way that dosen't give me flashbacks. God that musical just went on forever. Kirk was still great though.

Anyways it was a combo of that witty patter, gutpunching moments and being something diffrent in a lineup that while good, mostly stuck to middle or high school kids. While Esther and Daisy were fresh out of high school (Susan took a gap year) the college setting ups what they can do: drugs are taken, sex is had, those things can happen in high school settings but they can happen a bit more lightherateldy in the loosey goosey world of college.

At any rate this is where I came in.. well it was more around issue `12 chronologically but one year at the oscars I bought the first collection for a dollar, a hell of a deal and instantly devoured the trade then devoured every issue , then all of scary go round , then bad machinery. While reading the self published issues is good, the Boom series is where things have firmly settled: the characters are set, the experiments with the more fantastical are over, and the final member of our core cast arrives, and a very important part of Daisy's character I thankfully no longer have to dance around gets settled. The series starts off strong and just gets higher... then stumbles once or twice but usually picks up back to top shape soon after. We'll get there. For now let me show you Giant Days hitting it's stride as we deal with mustache men, lad culture, lesbian awakenings, THE DEVIL, susan sexing with a boy, attempted murder, forbidden romance, dancing till you stop, and Daisy turning into the best Friday Night Lights characters.

We open issue 1 with our three heroines hanging out maxing relaxing all cool and we get a quick and effective reintroduction. It worked for me coming in fresh all those years ago and still quickly sums up the cast so we can get going again.

Susan's summaries are harsh.. but not innacurate and also helps point out her own bluntness.. as does her answer. She dosen't mean it to be mean though, the last three issues bonded them like war and we get a brief recap. Granted she omits the part where all they did with Esther and the black metal society was drive up at the right time in a car Susan won from a man whose life she justifiably destroyed. They quickly realize Esther is the glue that holds them together.. or a sodding drama queen. Depends on who you ask.

Susan quickly assures Esther she likes her, she's "like a big sexy moon" she just attracts drama. And given her meet cute with her high school sweetheart involved her setting an idiot's crotch on fire and their first time was after their caravan was swarmed with bears, Susan has a point without knownig just how much ammo she has.

So a bet is made: Esther will go three days without any drama. She wanted a week but Susan wanted this to at least be fair. If Susan win, Esther gives her a massage. If Susan wins, Esther gets to give her a makeover and in her exact words

There is only a slightly straight explination for this. Moving on. Ed happens by which Susan sees an easy distractoin... until

This ladies, gentlemen and those inbetween.. is McGraw. Our fifth ranger. The other main character, the final piece to making this series feel.. whole... and as you can tell he and Susan have history. They exchange terse words and quickly part as no one knows what to make. McGraw hides behind the sterotype men don't talk about feelings to avoid talking this with Ed, and Esther makes the understandable mistake of needling Susan about it which sends her storming off while Esther goes to do her boxing.

Daisy TRIES to reach out to susan, but after getting preditably grumpy results leaves. Susan to her credit realizes pushing Daisy away probably isn't the right idea and encounters her doing.. something on the computer. When talking to Esther later she confirms it wasn't having a fiddle.. but also has no idea WHAT it was. So the duo opt to change the subject. Unfortunatley for Susie P this whole weird incident made her forget about the drama so Esther takes the opportunity to ask what the fuck was that all about and after begging for a flashback we get the short version.

And.. then it's time for Dinner so susie can easily weasel out of the rest of this flashback after this ominous teaser. We'll get full context as we go, but for now McGraw is left a sexy mystery as both Esther and Daisy point out how handsome he is with his mustache and mature air about him. And he happens to be going to the cafeteria too. What are the odds... well pretty good as the uni of shefield seems to be a moderate sized but still small enough for everyone to run into each other university.

Susan flings Esther's tray away and a kind cowboy picking it up leads to the tray getting knocked around, flying over.. and smearing potatoes all over McGraw. Susan warns him to get the fuck out or she won't give him a moments piece.. but he calmy refuses, flinging the potatoes off him and eating them. This was the first scene I saw of the comic, in the back of another comic. Not sure which. And it.. really caught my attention to say the least. It's a fun scene that grabs your attention and makes you want the context and in context works well.

Esther decides to eat with Ed to avoid Susan's gloating now she won, and he asks if she likes the field... and she does. She dosen't mean anything by it but like sthe uncertainty of life, does some playful flirting and prepares to leave while Ed.. well Ed's still stuck in the same place he was day one

This is where Ed's crush starts to settle.. it'll still be a few issues before it evolves and it won't be till his spotlight next time he gets entirely fleshed out, but it's hit the point where he's painfully aware she may not return his feelings but just wants this to go one way or the other. It's a feeling i'm all too aware of and it never gets easier. Doubly if you don't take your shot but we'll see if he does.

Back at the dorms, Susan gets her victory massage,

I shan't elaborate further, and we find out Daisy.. was just watching napkin folding videos. She likes the sounds. Susan explains it's just ASMR, it's good private wholesome fun and she's not a pervert or "going to die". Daisy's words not mine and what words they are.

We end on Ed who goes with McGraw. He also mentions the building is being knocked down at the end of the year and nothing works. McGraw does manage to make Ed's key work with some grapphite and shows off his handyman nature for the first time. McGraw can fix just about everything.. but as he stares longingly at his bookmark, one of those photobooth pictures of susan, he knows he can't fix everything.

Issue 1 is a fantastic reintroduction tot his world. Wether your following up the first three issues or jumping into the series blind as I did, it nicely sums up the characters: Susan is grumpy and has a complicated past we'll get into by the end of this first stretch of issues, Esther is impulsive, flighty but dosen't seek out drama and is a good friend, and Daisy is wholesome , innocent and just a touch naive and must be protected. McGraw is also introduced well, setting up a nice mystery of WHY Susan hates what seems to be a perfectly fine young man that runs through these first four issues, while also showing he's not all that bad. He's not instigating the fight with susan, seems tired at her hostility and clearly wants to reconcile but isn't going to push it, knowing she dosen't yet. He dosen't get mad back till she's actually done something wrong.

Tremain's art is also fantastic. While I prefer Max Sarin's, which we'll get to later, her style both has a sketch-like looseness to it while still being cartoony and fantastically expressive. She was the first to draw McGraw and defines his oddly mature face, taciturn nature, but willingness to go with things and redefind ed's hair from " giant poof" to "slightly smaller poof". her refinments of the cast define them visuallya fter this and it's telling even into Sarin's run he takes a lot more cues from her than Allison's original designs. This isn't a bad thing.. it allows the series to evolve and while Allison, as shown by sketches in the back of each volume, designs each character in the series himself, he gave his artists plenty of room to play with those deisgns. He may set the tone, but he's a wonderful colaberator visually and it works gangbusters. The cartoony art really helps the vibe, and is striking. Treiman would only do the first 6 issues, but would draw the covers for a while after and her art is just as important to the series as Sarin. I may prefer his style but without Lissa the series wouldn't be the same or have gotten off to the start it did.

Onto issue 2. Issue 2 is the first time since the first self published issue it feels like the series has pumped the breaks a bit. Each previous issue was something big and consequential to the rest of the story. The introduction to everyone sans mcgraw, Esther's big mistake with Fuckin Steve that ends her relationship with Eustace, the aftermath of that mess, and the reintroduction of the main cast along with adding it's final member.

Here while stuff happens in Susan's subplot to move that along a bit, the story is , similar to the music club b-plot in the third self published issue, just some fun college shenanigans. It's one of the series MANY strengths: it has arcs that progress at a decent clip, sometimes a tad too slowly, but makes plenty of time for simply letting the characters breathe and do a shenanigan or two. It's something that in modern storytelling we don't get as much of: with tv shows paired to 10 to 12 episodes and comics given increasingly slim runs, there's less time for one off's to let the characters play off one another. It reminds me a lot of how gilmore girls worked, mixing teen drama with humor that's boths nappy but not afraid to get goofy.

In this case our simple premise is the cast all gets colds after Esther brags about how she never gets sick.

Most of issue 3 is just a nice buffet of jokes: Esther does voice overs and builds herself a blankie cocoon, Daisy can barely move and sleeps thorugh most of it at first, and Susan.. well susan has to quit smoking. This is the first I think i've brought it up, but it's a part of her character and I Like how they handle it: she isn't shamed, the other two don't really care (Which is a bigger deal for Daisy), and Susan in turn dosen't smoke in their faces or shit like that. She's not a dick about it which for susan is saying something.

That said she's still addicted enough that not being able to smoke due to the sore throat.. does things to her.

She TRIES to get Nicotine Patches on the advice of her muppety hallucination but dosen't have the cash for them and runs into McGraw. And here is our first big indication he's not the monster she treats him as: he's here specifically to get some suplies for a friend whose under the weather and the best she can call him is a moon cup. Which as he points out isn't an insult. It isn't anything

While Susan plans to die and haunt that chivlarous bastard as a ghost, Daisy gets some help from Ed. Being Daisy she forces herself to go to class when no one would remotely blame her and Esther and Susan both don't remotely try. Ed has the solution though: AFTERMARKET PEP PILLS BABYEEE

It's.. one of my faviorite ed lines. Just his dopey face. The lime green hoodie, how Daissy sees it, adds to it. It works and seems to help. She even gets to talk to a helpful pidgeon.

Esther out of the trio TRIES to go to the doctor but ends up in her steampunk gear passing out at someone's party where they laid her with the coats.

So with that the gang is cured, and back to normal. Susan had some help from a good samaritan slipping nicotine patches under the door.. aka exactly who you'd think. She's still frosty towards mcgraw despite this but it shows most of the hostility is from her. We'll get into the why soon I promise. John thankfully dosen't drag it out. For now we get what becomes the series signature: a teaser for the next issue, in this case some asshole taking a picture of Esther from the back.

Issue 2 is good fun: all the jokes land, the mcgraw stuff starts to flesh him out, and we get the first of two times Daisy gets high as balls this part of the retrospective. Good times

Issue 3 and we meet Daisy's friend Gordon, the wood pidgeon she talked to while high on grey market pills. Esther and Susan saunter in having partied last night: it was the first year med student mixer and Susan figured all the young med students would help Esther move on and none of them would care about the striking goth doctor who suddenly party crashed.

The gang run into Ed whose frusrated because his neighbor keeps blasting reggae and having loud sex with his girlfriend so he needs to go work at the computer lab. While I do feel for poor ed at least we got one of Daisy's best moments out of it

At computer lab Ed overhears some lads being sexist dickheads as is their nature. For my fellow americans, Lad's are the Bros of the UK, same sexisim, toxic masculinity and "boys will be boys" excuse for their bullshit.

While telling them to quiet down, Ed notices what their looking at and rushes to tell Susan. This is where we meet Susan's gross laptop, a runner I can't help but love and only noticed on re-read. He uses it to show her what he saw: A site ranking women called bantserve.. and Esther's #3.

Susan understandably plans to never tell her, but Daisy spills the beans not realizing it's not a compliment. Oh Daisy. Esther to her credit tries to take care of jagoff mountain the proper way: go to the dean and ask him to do something. And said Dean.. is a fucking moron who dosen't know waht an internet or sexual harassment is.

Esther stews but it turns out Bantserve has a plan to monotize their bullshit : Beg for money. As someone who gets money via the internet for their bullshit, i'm unimpressed, doubly so since while I give my patrons a review a month, and a free birthday review, their giving them.. access to women's phone's numbers. Esther wisely smashes her phone then decides with Susan these fuckers gotta pay.

While susan has the rage of a son she gets she just can't go whip the piss out of them and stay in university so she digs in their trass. She runs into McGraw whose carrying some planks around and who is rightfully pissed when he finds out and considers thrashing them. This beings Susan's tendency to call him out for "white knighting" in this case.. she's correct. If punching these douches in the face would work, she'd be doing it already and while he means well it's not going to help. Her later callouts.. eh he's just chilvarous. He dosen't treat women as lesser and never has and she's known him since middle school and thus long enough to know that.. which makes her next act pretty bad: putting him on the front of a misandrist newsletter. Both a woman she hands a copy to and esther herself think this is just a manhating screed, which she dosen't deny. But we'll have to wait an issue for the fallout for now Susan has brought Esther with her to class for a scheme.

She brings her emotoinal support goth to a third year law lecture... and it's soon revealed she took McGraw's grumbling that "don't those women have mothers' to heart and pulled her gambit straight from Desinging Women season 3: call their moms. They humilate the assholes and drag them off and justice is served.

Sadly Daisy is having a rougher time. She goes to see Gordon again... and finds him too late as he's being savaged by a cat and barely gets the kitty to shoo , and only long enough to say goodbye. Daisy is miserable after, missing home, her granny.. but finds hope.. a baby bird. Turns out , "Gordon was a lady gordon" so she has a new baby bird to take care of and give a less gendered name.

So we end with our teaser for next time: Daisy is carrying around Gordon 2: The Gordoning in her pocket.. and talking to someone. A female someone. And her response to Susan asking who it is .. is telling

Yup... Daisy'... is queer. Like McGraw it's a crucial part of the series and something i'm happy to no longer dance around. Now where she specifically lands, we'll find out over the next few issues, but at a minimum she likes girls and is just realizing that herself. And we get to throughly explore that next issue.

But first the bantserve issue is decent: it advances the plot along nicely, and I wish se'd gotten more time with Daisy's plot to make the impact of Gordon's death hit harder. But it's enough to show she's just felt out of sorts. While for Esther and Susan college is an escape from problems back home.. Daisy was happy in her tiny town. She's better for broadening her horizons but it's still a rough process and it's about to get rougher as she deals with her first crush, her first drugs... and her 18th birthday as we open issue 4 with one of my faviorite panels in the entire comic

It's such a sweet moment, with Esther's saranade being genuienly sweet and the 18 badge and jughead crown adding to it as well as Daisy's happy mildly embarassed smile. Also ed's here as re various members from the Indie music club. A nice background touch I found on re-read is a lot of one of minor characters from the first three issues pop up in the background.

WE get a proper name for Daisy's crush, Nadia who she knows from communciation and has lived a bit more. For once it's Esther whose paranoid about this: Susan is fine just fine, figuring Daisy deserves to get her bell rung. Ring a ling a ling. Esther's protectiveness is understandable though: it's not jealousy, Esther may be bi and not realize it in my eyes... but her protctivness of Daisy comes off sisterly thanks to the first panel. Since the moment they've met Esther's seen Daisy as a baby bird that needs her big sister bird to protect her and worries Nadia will break her. The fact Esther is just a few weeks off a massive sex disaster probably isn't helping.

Susan has bigger issues though as McGraw enters rightfully pissed. Turns out her misandrist screed, his words not mine, which to her credit she only made like 20 copies of on a whim, has been spread by the local middle schoolers and now every woman in town hates McGraw and he's understandably steamed. The fact Nadia instantly sees him as anti femisnist kinda proves the point.

Susan understandably feels shitty for the shitty thing she did so she heads home, as does Esther, leaving Daisy in Nadia's hand as she wants to go out more/spend more time with her crush. Understandable. So they go to the da club.

It's here Nadia pulls some mmmm drugs out of her hair.. which I never realized that's where she stored them. Just a few party pills to pep daisy up nothing bad... unless you take three not realizing that's probably not a good idea which daisy does before Nadia can talk her out of it.

So we get one of the best Daisy moments in the series: High Daisy. Daisy is stoned out of her considerable hair though Nadia gets her home and helps guide her.. best she can.. there's still some hiccups

Though the two at least get some semi romantic moments. As you can see McGraw isn't doing so good and has no idea how to fix this. I mean he could shave his mustache but as he tells Ed when ed floats the idea "this arangment took work" I mean the thing is perfectly sculpted man I get it.

While this goes on WE finally get the backstory as to why Susan hates the guy so much, with her being in a vunerable enough place to actually give in this time: The two had been friends since they were thirteen, meeting in metalwork where Susan made an ill defined x and McGraw made scissors so fine they were presneted to then Prince Charles. Can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult but either way the two were inseperable, getting into scrapes and uh.. carrying dogs for some reason. Best of friends.. then..

To this day I don't know WHY he said no. He did start going out with Kylie Traynor, who we get more on in a flashback of McGraw's own that also explains why he grew that magnificent mustache, which of course has an origin story, but we never find out why. I'm mixed on this: on one hand it's neat to leave it vauge and let the audience try to piece it together but on the other it's such an important moment int hei rrelationship it's off to leave it vauge when so much else gets filled in.

My best guess from the panel is he just didn't feel the same way at the time, and his relationship disaster with Kylie caused him to realize just what he'd given up and simply hadn't had the chance to tell her, with Susan's raw unbridled fury at the guy over it making it impossible to actually talk it out.

This does explain enough at least: That Susan was lashing out over something that clearly STILL hurts deeply for her, also explaining her secrecy: this was a wound that just got reopened. Does it make her constnat lashing out at him okay? No. While she's right to be hurt and never want to talk to him again, it's not okay to treat him like some kind of monster over it. He simply.. wasn't intrested then. It hurts and it fucking sucks their friendship imploded over it.. but she's taken it too far. To the series credit though.. that feels like the point, with Susan lashing out at him and McGraw taking it because he's a good dude.. and plastering him on a magazine as anti femnist was simply too far and she realizes it. It's one thing to be mad at the guy it's another to actively hurt his reputation and him.

While Susan reflects on things , and took a gap year if you were curious as did McGraw so their both a year older, Daisy comes in schwambammed with the girls understandably nettled Nadia just.. dropped her off. I mean she didn't FORCE the drugs on Daisy but she did see how out of it the girl was.

Daisy SHOULD be lying down and letting the high pass.. but she has a vistor.

So Esther quicly has susan give Daisy a cold shower which works and the group have breakfast. They TRY to avoid outing Daisy.. as a drug user. The other part comes way later. Daisy just.. flat out admits it feeling bad about the whole thing, but thankfully Granny just writes it off as a joke and they barely dodged that bullet.

Sadly there are some bullets you can't matrix under. Nadia visits giving Daisy a neat mug.. and Daisy pulls the trigger, asking her out. It shows the daisy we'll get to know: someone with a lot of self confidence. It's not always there, but when it is she's a tiger. And in this case she knows who she wants to pounce.

Sadly... Nadia dosen't want that. She gently turns her down and offers to call.. but it clearly guts the poor hair ball who thankfully gets some sleep as a result. Depression sleep is still sleep, that's what i tell myself anyway.

Daisy wakes up a full day later on sunday night and asks Esther an important question

I love everything about this scene. I love how Esther explains things, that it's a scale not a switch is a godo metaphor and she ultimately can't answer this hard question for Daisy.. but she can figure it out. It hurts but she can do this. It's probably my faviorite moment with these two.

So Susan makes piece as McGraw makes an art piece: mother and son, a big box and a smaller one. I don't get it but the teens get it enoguh for McGraw to be redeemed and Susan has grown from this enough to agree to a truce. She's not QUITE ready to fully let him back in.. but she's realized her hate is distructive and misplaced and has let it go. She still bleughs after a handclasp but it's progress.

Esther tries to call out Nadia.. but Nadia claps back when Esther accuses her of leading Daisy on: She didn't. She likes girls, she just dosen't like daisy like that and that's okay. And that's a neat thread I didn't fully grasp till writing this: the idea that it's okay if someone dosen't like you back. Susan lets go of her rage against McGraw for it and Esther realizes while Nadia did hurt Daisy.. she's within her rights to turn her down. And Esther should know a thing or two baout being super flirty with someone who has a crush on you, so she has no ground to stand on. Nadia is clearly caught off guard when asked and didn't know. esther as we find out much later did. At least at some point. But more on that in a bit as we end the issue with the announcment of the building's annual ball. IT'S A DANCE EPISODE BABYEE

Issue 4 is one of my faviorites series wide. I reckon when this retrospective is done i'll do a formal list, but this one was an early faviorite: While the first three are good.. this is the magic one: the character depth, the sadness, and the jokes hit a high here. It's also where Daisy finally catches up with her hormones and fully realizes she's gay. And I like that it's a slow journey not a sprint: it takes the next few issues to figure out if she just likes girls or also boys, and it makes sense why this is a slow process for her: he grandma is open and understanding and as we'll find out later is entirely okay with her being gay, but she probably didn't get a huge education on queernees from her homeschooling. Granted Susan and Esther didn't from their public schoolling so their on an even playing field, but esther's speech shows she has a better grasp of who she is. And hell even knowing queer people xist dosen't help: i was in the closet about my bisexuality for a while and i'm still slowly exploring it over 5 years later. It's a hard journey even when you have all the info.

So with the next issue it's ball time and our heroines need some fancy wear. Esther's intitial plan of "borrow something then return it" fails as she's already done it too much, so she decides to go thrift shopping. She convinces Susan and Daisy to buy some illfitting dresses, but not out of her usual reckleness but because she can sew. She's a wiz with it which honestly explains her giant expansive wardrobe. it's easier to have fits on an upper middle class budget when you can make them fit you. As for how she knows I suspect part of it is Sarah, her bestie who later goes into fashion herself and likely helped sew it.

While the ladies get ready the fellas also do at a place that sells keys. McGraw can work with that. He's in his comfort zone. He's going because while he expects to trade it you miss every shot you don't take. Ed is going because well.. take a wild guess

I find McGraw's focus on THE MAINTINENCE hilarious.. both because he dosen't seem to grasp that's not the actual problem here or that the love of his life is feral as heck. It's why he loves her, it's why the audience loves her but it's a weird lack of self reflection.

It is nice to get more of him though: this issue is the first time he really gets to play off everyone else and settle into the ensemble. The mystery kept him at arms length and even with Ed we only got one real scene of the two bouncing off each other at the diner last issue. Now he and Susan are good again, he can actually talk to the rest of the cast and be his full self.

At the Dance McGraw gets his first moment of bonding with esther, complementing her stitch work and the group finally feels whole. I will treasure it while it lasts.

Sadly stitchwork can not save a pretty bad time for most: Nadia shows up with a date which makes Daisy super depressed and turning to wine, Ed is still pining for Esther who has an embarassing bag spill, then finds she's the center of a "ride the bride" contest as she's wearing a bridal gown. About only two people in this room actually have a good time... while another sad and rejecting Nadia's offer of friendship, if understandably.. tries something else.

Yup the inevetible happened.. as did the unexpected which did floor me when I first read this. With the power of hindsight it's a weird drunken thing what happened.

Esther has an even worse time somehow, as, sad and probably lightly tipsy, she calls Eustace's number and gets nothing. We then get.. a scene that lives in my head. Ed goes to look for his cuflink/escape this awkward encounter and

Yeahhhh when I first read this up till the reveal much later, I assumed Esther really DIDN'T know. That the obstacle between them was in part him simply not making a move. And while that's part of it... Esther later reveals she was fully aware. She just wanted the comfort of having someone like Eustace without actually. So I was harder on this scene, feeling she was manipulating him.

Instead.. it feels like her caught off guard. She knew, anyone could tell from space, Ed is not subtle as he thinks he is... but she may not of realized HOW deep he felt till this moment and her suprise is part that and part what do I do now. And his reaction feels less like back pedaling and him realizing "oh shit I caught her at the worst possible time." Instead of his backpeadling feeling like an easy out for both.. it feels like Ed recognizing Esther needs her friend right now. Dosen't excuse him for not trying to move on after this... but while before I thought this season was ruined knowing she knows... it makes it better. It's Esther badly needing someone who cares about her and Ed growing up and recognizing caring about her as a person and not just because she's pretty. I think he always liked her for her personality and looks.. but he put her on a pedestal, keeping her out of reach and hoping she just notices him, something i've done far too many times to count. To truly love someone you need to see them as a person. And Ed starts to here, seeing Esther as a flawed person who needs his emotoinal support. She may not WANT him.. but he's here for her because she's his friend and that's important. And the ending of this scene.. breaks me knowing she knew.

It's just.. a lovely scene.. Ed accepts his love may not be requited, even if he's not over her yet, and Esther... realizes she may of hurt him just a little and insults herself. It's a damn fine scene and the two's chemsitry is impecable now their on a more even playing field.. well mostly. But we'll get to that.

So the next day the ladies are set to go home: Susan tries to sneak back but Esther catches her. Thankfully Esther's ride is here so Susan is spared having to explain things for now, and Daisy mentions the ed thing last minute. We'll get back to both of those things in issue 7.. for now Susan has bigger problems.. specifically an anonomous death threat. Oohhhh

Issue 6 is phenominal and as you can tell... I found even more to love this time. That scene with Esther and Ed was already one I liked but this time around with all the subtext and what not.. it's incredible. Add in some more of Daisys crush and Susan and McGraw sucubing ot the ineveitble and you have a damn fine issue. I like a good dance and this is a great one.

One last note before we tackle the whole death threat thing though: This is the last we see of Nadia. She COULD be in the background somewhere.. but after this she's not seen again, and I feel it's a missed opportunity. I don't expect Daisy to be friends with her, or at the very least not NOW when the wound's open.. but the two still share a class, and it'd be intresting to go into that. How does still seeing her affect Daisy? Maybe it was too similar to this I don't know, but people don't just go away because they rejected you and this issue does a good job of that... but then makes it seem like people go away because they rejected you. Daisy's sexual journey will continue, no doubt but it feels like a missed opportunity to never bring Nadia back, especially since once Daisy does get a love intrest, she's the kind who'd run in similar circles. Not because of the queer thing but because of the "wants to party and wants to get down' thing".

So issue 6 begins with a mystery on top of a mystery: Esther and Daisy were meeting her in Northampton for what seems like a weekend or something. Susan hasn't shown up and Daisy is panicking while Esther tries to remain calm with an app on her phone. Daisy decides to do the responsible thing and facebook stalk her, retrace her steps.

First stop is the local smokers. And while one is offended at the idea they all know each other, though racist is a bit strong, one of them is happy to help and knows Susan and being an indie kid she hangs out at comic book world and vinyl world.. which turns out to be one shop I wish existed when I was a teen. I mean i'm not into vinyl but i tended to hang out with either the other nerds or the stoner kids. Still do. Stoner's tends to be nerds themselves after all they just fuck and get to do drugs. Really wish we'd seen this place again and it's twin shopkeeps.

The shopkeeps fill our heroines in on what might be happened as we find out the bridge Susan burned: the Shaws. The Shaws are a crime family, rough louts who do various scams and Susan pissed them off by going after their Faith Healing scam artist daughter Karen. Despite the shopkeeps trying to stop susan for her own saftey she went after Karen, having worked experinced at a detective agency, explaning a lot about her: when you've taken pictures of cheating spouses and seen the worst of a city, you tend ot be cynical. Allison's other teen detectives likely faired better because they stuck to misfit monsters and super creeps.

So our heroines know WHO is after Susan and why she might be on the run but not where she went. Thankfully they have an inside track and Daisy is REALLY showing off her insight here: up to this point Daisy's mostly been portrayed as naive and while not without wisdom, lost in a big grey world. Yet here when her friend is lost in the big city and possibly in danger.. she remains calm. While the more wordly esther tries not to panic.. Daisy is on top of it and every idea she's had.. works. She followed the smokers.. and knows where to find mcgraw the same way: go where keys are cut.

McGraw is luckily just off work.. and unluckly sporting a shiner. One of the shaws delivered a warning in punch form, and when McGraw told Susan, she decided this shit has to end and went to confront Karen at the Shaw's lair, a night club called Intensity.

So our heroes go back to da club. Susan and Daisy get in but the shaws recognize McGraw so he can't get in. He puts his hands in his face sad he failed her.. only for Susan to pipe up. She's locked in the office upstairs. Inside Esther and Daisy fend off dudes and McGraw allives, having used his multitool to jimmy the window.. with Esther accuratley figuring he'll go back and replace the window tommorow. This is where McGraw really starts to shine. He also called the bouncers "son" the first of many times he'll use that.

Daisy continues to be the mvp and meditates for a second to formulate a plan: esther will use her drama field to cause a scene and distract the bouncers while McGraw and Daisy sneak upstairs. This will also allow them to get out later. Esther is understandably grumpy but approaches the task with applomb, doing a cool looking dance as she gets all the boys after her.. and then fighting over her. Which if they hadn't skeezily hit on her earlier i'd feel bad about.

Unluckily for Susan though... the roof door has a lot of locks and given Karen is coming at Susan with a brick, it's clear it's for murdery reasons. The multtool can pick ONE at a decent pace but it's not buitl as a lockpick so Susan is left to take the bull by the horns.. and get tricked into dangling off the roof when Karen slides otu of the way. Karen lets her know she could drop her.. then lets her go. She's not HAPPY with susan but apparently despite susie P ruining her life, she's not willing to go to jail over it.

So a happy ending.. wells orta. Apparently Karen is only the TENTH most dangerous person who hates susan. We'll meet one of the others later, but we never get to meet most of them.. thoguh given Granny Shaw cleared out teh dance floor let's just assume the shaws fill up most of that list and move on with our lives.

So Susan bids the gals a fond farewell.. and Susan realizes when they reuinte in two weeks she ahs exams.. and hasn't been to class tilll november. oh bother. I also get the sense this ending would've depended on if the series was still a mini or not. it wasn't so the series goes on.

Issue 6 is solid, a nice wrap up to the first 6 issues and Treiman's run. Don't have much else to say, it's just a fun tense adventure with some nice payoffs and a lot of nice mcgraw moments. It's a solid ending and thankfully not the ending of the series.

So with that we're onto issue 7, a turning point in the series. Treiman's art was fantastic and going over it again for this review only sold that: she started the series on a fantastic note and helped define a lot about the characters visually. I love her art and I am sad to see her go.

That said... i'm also exastic to get to our next artist. While I love Lissa Treimain's art, her succesor became one of my faviorite artists period and he and Allison worked together so well they've remained colaberators since, to the point Allison came up with a summer special for his comic solver because his old friend wanted something to draw. Ladies, Gentlemen and others, I present Max Sarin.

This panel is one of myf aviorites in the entire comic from Daisy's starry eyes to the phrasing. I coudln't think of anything finer to introduce this man to ya'll and reintroduce him to my fellow Giant Days fans. Max has a colorful, cartoony art style I adore that fits the series tones. He can get the drama just right without loosing the characters humanity but tends to add little touches like these stars in Daisy's eyes.

His art is so dang expressive and while Treiman set the tone for the casts body language, Sarin perfects it. He gives each of the cast their own rythm and perfectly matches Allisons weirdness with his own. Giant Days would be good if Sarin hadn't hopped on board but to me he's what truly defines the series. It's rare you see an artist and writer work this perfectly in synch, but it's part of Giant Days magic.

We'll get to the context of that in a moment as this issue, like the third self published issue, is essentially two diffrent plots that are only tangetially related.

Since it's the quicker one to recap i'll start with Esther's, which picks up from last time. Exams are coming for Daisy and Esther. Daisy is of course ready and Susan gets tested constantly as a med student.

Esther like me in college is not prepared.. though unlike me a large part of the problem is barely going to classes. Though both of us spent more time on tumblr than reading. I still made it through but Esther has a bigger problem as she was a pretentious jackass in her new testimate course and her religigious classmates don't want to help her at all. Daisy TRIES.. but Esther decides to party instead and we get one of my faviorite panels of the series

It's a truly gorgeous panel. This issue is the moment where Esther's character really all snaps together: it was all there before, but before her flightness and irresponsiblity didn't really bite her on the ass. The only thing that really hurt, and still does, was Eustace. Here she's drowning due to her own poor choices: not studying, oggling hunks, and pissing off her , admitely self righteous when they refuse to help her classmates. Like their doing it because they think she's the devil not because she was an asshole to them. A preist tries to reassure her, but Esther feels doomed. What also sticks out is her response... and it's one i'm sadly also familiar with is to double down.. just drown in her regret and let things burn.

Esther does get a potetinal lifeline as Ed offers her his notes as it's an open note test... but refuses, and thus is screwed for their class and the others. She did the right thing, she's not lost.. but she still looses. Kinda.

Yeah for some weird reason.. first exams don't count. Yes really. I wish I had that shit in college. I get why, it gives you a shot.. but it also feels weird to have all that pressure for nothing. I'd just goof off and eat candy. And while I can't goof off while I do this I can eat candy so I win at life. Esther naturally learns nothhing.. excpet that she found the ta holding her new testement exam dreamy and quickly goes out with him, which is about to go as well as you can expect but is something we'll dive into more next issue.

For now let's get back to our other plot: Daisy isn't doing so hot as one friend is self sabotaging herself while Susan.. is ducking away after furious texts.

The reason is well.. Daisy what said it. She's sexing a boy and you know damn well which boy. As for why she's hiding it, it's a sympathetic reason: she's happy with McGraw. Their so in synch that he repeats the same rumor she said in an earlier scene I didn't cover, that the college rents out caddrick hall to visting buisness men and that's who busted the heat while they were gone. It's just that with Esther and Daisy having had pretty disasterous love lifes lately she dosen't want to wave her happy new relationship in their faces. It is a great relationship though and said rumor finally gets Susan to say "Screw the check let's get naked".

Her hiding though is still casuing tension as her absence has been notice and when confronting her.. all Daisy needs is a quick scan at her shopping basket to figure things out

God these two panels alone show off just how good Max's expression work is, Susan's panick, the gears in daisy's heads turning then the greatest panel in human history. It's so fucking beautiful. Also never noticed her little pig earmuffs till now.

Meanwhile post bang shang a lang, McGraw is still on Susan to tell them, with Susan admitting another part is she's never had friends these close before. She dosen't want to loose them... but McGraw manages to get through that worry with a simple fact

Every part of these panels is terrific. It's the first indicator of why these two work so well: They get each other to open up more. As we've seen susan tends to pull away usually with venemous fury rather than talk about her feelings and McGraw tends to withdraw.. but here he recognizes how much she needs her people, and she concedes the point and as we've seen with Daisy had this gone on much longer it probably would've caused permenant friendship damage.

The latter part is just purely funny, especially McGraw's annoyance. Which let' sbe fair here Grahm... they KINDA do but haven't really hung out with you. Also did not know britan had monster truck rally's. What a world.

So when Daisy next spots susan she openly pashes McGraw. Daisy's a bit flustered and literally runs into ed. Turns out Ed knew and just thought they knew, as McGraw isn't a secret squirrel like Susan. He knew as far back as the ball. Oh McGraw what a man what a man what a mighty good man. Ed and Daisy quickly clear up the whole "her kissing him thing" as his fumbling to try to bring it up shows he's not intrested and she admits he may be the only boy she ever kisses, she's glad it was him. Now we'll never speak of this again. So with this Daisy is firmly confirmed to be a lesbian. Her journey isn't over, we're only on issue 7 of 43 after all, but it's going to take a back seat next time. She's realized she only likes women, she's had her first heartbreak, that's enough for now. Her first real love is a bit off.

I was confused by this when I first read the comic as it came out why John held off.. but I get it now, probably helped by the fact i've came out myself as bi since this and my journey's still ongoing: coming out can be a lot and just figuring out your queer is the first step in a very long journey. So it makes sense daisy would take some time off it, not really ask girls out and jump into it. And with Susan having a whole relationship arc going on, it gives that room to breathe and let's daisy do other stuff.

So with their friendship repared, Ed confides in daisy while Susan finally spills the beans about her relationship.

One of my faviorite pages and the rare one I'll share in full as it's just so good. "The world's most unwelcome man" panel lives rent free in my head while that last one just perfectly sums up all three in one joyous panel.

So with that we get the whole Esther dating her ta thing and we're onto our final issue for this batch. Only... 6 more parts to go this size. He he he... oh boy.

So issue 8, upfront is one of my faviorites. The main esther plot is compelling, it moves ed into position for his definining spotlight in issue 9, and the subplot.. is one of the series best plots period. It is one deeply insane, deeply relatable and deeply hilarious.

So we open with some delightful ice skating, with the whole gang plus Esther's new beau skating.. minus ed as his hands are his lively hood. Which diddn't stop susan from getting involved nor wishing his death.

This being ed though he quickly switches to moping over esther. Thankfully this becomes much more scarce after this issue, but for now while he's happy she's happy he really can't sell it.

Thankfully no one is on board with this nonsense with Susan being disgusted for both a sizeable age gap... and another reason

I'm saying this a LOT this time.. but that last panel is one of my faviorites. I have a lot of faviorites. But yes Ian is both nearly a decade older, which is gross especailly given the ages their at: her a first year college student and him a grown ass man, and he has power over her. Esther's just dickmotized though Ian reocgnizes her friends hate him. As they should Ian as they should.

So for now let's leave that Lowdown Groomer Ian as we get to our truly trasncedant subplot: Daisy is doing a walk with susan.. in a blue coat and hat and when Susan understandably gets fed up she kinda snaps.. in a very familiar way

Yeah... the subplot, as I hinted at up top.. is Daisy binging all of Friday Night Lights and getting.. REALLY fuckign into it. And given i'd just come off doing the same when I read this I fucking loved it. And even long after i'd watched it or remember most.. I still love it. It's hyper specific enough to be really funny but not so much if you don't know friday night liights. And if you do it's clear John must've really loved that show as she gets Coach Taylor, the main character , high school coach and motivational icon played by Kyle Chandler and his wife Tammy, the school counsler played by true legend Connie Britton, down perfectly. And seeing Daisy cosplay as them and go through this weird phase it's just pure joy.

Not joyous is that Lowdown Groomer Ian, who is taking Esther to meet his friends who are both older and more wordly and she feels embarassed when she tries popping in while ti's clear none of them are okay with this.. I mean they should be not okay enough to call him a motherfucker and i would but I spent that on Motherfucking Steve last time. That and Motherfucker.. dosen't quite cover... "dating a younger woman as a sex prop".

So Daisy tries to help and goes into Tammy mode: Esther vents but Daisy is too drunk and too busy being a wise texan to help.

This does nothing and I like that the comic.. makes no bones about how .. bad this is. How even when Ian's trying to treat it like an equal relationship.. it just isn't. He's older, he's got more poewr and he makes her feel insecure about herself. This.. isn't healthy.

And it's even less healthy the next doris day when Susan finds her baking. For a man. Given how we've seen Susan treats a man geninely trying to help, if needing to be told "no white knighting sir", this infurates her and she throws the cupcakes out. Except one. Esther really can bake. She can also bake a backup. Daisy's convoluted football metaphors do nothing as she clearly understands sports ball as well as I do.

She does get people though and whiel she failed to help esther, and failed to help susan, her spot on COnnie Britton helps ed.

This is my faviorite scene of the issue: it's hilarious, ed even booked an apointment with his friend whose cosplaying as a fictional gudiance counsoler.. but while she's playing a fictional texan, well I might ad... Daisy gets to the point and is the first one to actually.. help ed. Susan and McGraw tried to be blunt.. but they offered no actual alternative to pining over esther. Susan just pointed out he shoudlnt' pine after someone with a boyfriend, true and McGraw went on about something he sees as a feature not a bug. The two tried, I dont' knock them for that.. but neither really had the right approach to get it through ed's thick skull this isn't working.

In contrast Daisy... is empathetic. You can see from the top panel she's geninely sad, not just in character sad, and wants to help him and is blunt like her friends: he needs to move on. What she does that they didn't... is attack the actual problem. Ed points out the problem with a crush: it's not easy to just get out there nor just move on.. but Daisy isn't wrong: this can't be his whole self and he can't let this keep eating him. So she gets him something to distract him, something else to do where he can meet people, possibly girls and move on. A life basically. In this case she shoves him into the newspaper office, whose editor amanda not only takes him on but seems to have instant chemistry with our boy. More on that next time.

For now we get a c plot as susan is refusing to leave her dorm. And it's a geninely fantastic romantic moment. McGraw and her hav ea fight.. but since he knows how stubborn she is and how he can't just talk her down, he instead makes a solution: a sled he handcrafted using a branch he implictly cut down to haul her around, with them cutely sledding around. It's a brief scene.. but it shows why these two work: The two may fight on occasoin but know better to just let it settle and McGraw makes solutions.. but dosen't force them on susan. INstead of just mansplaning to her, he simply does a big romantic gesture instead. Saying it again, what a man what a man what a mighty mighty good man.

Back with Lowdown Groomer Ian, he's taking Esther to a fancy do with his academic collegues. This is a fucking terrible idea from the fact she's his student and someone might suspect given her age, but Esther geninely tries, having read a bunch of talking points and actually charming the table... and then.. Lowdown Groomer Ian let's the mask of being a decent guy slip. He berates her for "EMBARASSING HERSELF" even though she makes it clear she tried hard. She even dosen't have her goth makeup on and is wearing blue that isnt' surrounded by black. BLUE YOU MONSTER BLUE. It's VERY clear Esther was trying her hardest to be the "ideal girlfriend" for him.. something she shoudln't of had to do... and him berating her for simply trying finally snaps her out. It's also.. wrong. he thinks she's embarssing him.. but the head of his department or whatever this delightful old man is ... likes her. He values her opinon, he finds her charming. Because.. Esther is charming. She's a good talker. She may not know what she's saying but she's charasmatic.

I get the impression Ian isn't mad his child bride is embarassing him.. he's mad she's upstaging him. He's noticably way more cordial after accidently embarassing herself with his friends. He's dating her.. because he's her suprieror in his eyes: she's younger, she's in his class, she SEEMS dumber when she's really just less experinced. The second she realizes this.. she's fucking done. And rather than leave like he once she's gonna make a fucking scene of it because fuck Lowdown Groomer Ian and his Companion-style misgony

I love this whole moment and the fact.. no one else cares. They get something's going on between them.. but everyone's clearly sided with Esther. Ian just saw a stupid child he could legally fuck. Everyone else sees esther as a witty young woman who was just trapped ina relationship with a dipshit and had the good respect to leave.

Susan is waiting for an intervention.. but Esther's already a step ahead and Susan couldn't be prouder. They do intervene on Daisy whose now ready to deep fry a turkey and snaps out once they throw her dvd's out a window. With that the universe is back in ballance, and Ed is thriving at the newspaper. McGraw not as much as he's still carrying susan btu still what a man, what a man what a mighty mighty good man.

Issue 8 is delightful: the subplot is peak giant days, hilaroius, fucking weird and having a fun resolution, the ed stuff's nice setup for next time and the esther stuff fleshes her out even more: She was already pretty developed but we get to see her insecurties, what she saw in ian (She likes basic guys, which explains a LOT), and see her sparkle as she utterly destroys this motherfucker.

Next Month: the love trials aren't over as Susan and McGraw hit a rough patch, Ed has an embarassing near first time and a great actual first time. Meanwhile an old friend steamrolls into town, but it may not be enough to actually keep esther in school as her depression peaks, the gang makes some movies, and Daisy finds lust. All this and more next time.

[heavyweighthappy]

@arandomnerdsrp358 sent from May...

She felt bad calling him this late at night but she had no other option. Her life had just gotten completely turned upside down and she didn’t know what to do.

“Hey. It’s May. But you probably already knew that.”

Her mind felt like soup and her voice was all scratchy from crying.

“I just got custody of my nephew…I’ll explain as soon as I can but I just need your help right now. Please come over.”

"What?" Happy had heard her but it was just difficult to believe. And May was crying. It took him a moment to register that tone in her voice. He'd never heard it before.

"Yeah-- Hang on--" Happy was in the middle of work, technically. Tony was throwing another party. The boss was getting more out of control than normal. As long as it didn't descend into Tony's early twenties days of drugs and alcohol, Happy was calling a too loud bash a win. He'd already gotten Pepper home, and Rhody was around somewhere. He'd have to find him, and unfortunately saddle him with Tony-sitting duty. It wasn't fair for any of them, but they all knew how important it was to keep Tony's debauchery to a minimum.

"You got custody--?" Happy ducked outside, away from the music and crowd. There were a lot of reasons why people got custody of a kid. Happy was crossing his fingers for an arrest. "Are the kid's parents okay?"

He realized maybe May didn't want to exactly talk about this over the phone. And she wanted him with her, so it had to be scary. He just was hoping for better news for her.

"I'm on my way, May. I'm in the city, though. I'll be over as soon as I can, I promise."

[jujurose222]

Alcoholics are like the insects of society, like the scary ones. Like I don’t even want to pretend I like you, please let me squish you with my shoe. I am unsettled by your presence.

I don’t mean people who drink leisurely. That’s chill. I mean literal alcoholics. Oh god nothing gets under my skin more. They love to touch peoples shoulders, has anyone noticed that? At least the men ones. They always walk up behind you and hold your shoulders.

OH MY GOD that was my old manager. He was always drunk. He’d get way too close when he was talking like he wanted you to smell his liquor breath. It wasn’t like creepy, he just would become literally fucking slow. He got fired. While my other manager was accused of trying to sleep with the owner and steal his money. Idek what tf was going on there. The owners wife was a stripper too, but I really liked her, she was nice.

Anyway, not my point. I hate the way alcoholics lose cognizance. Like I don’t want to stand here and pretend to talk to you, you don’t even know what we are talking about. So on edge, they are always so scared to say the wrong thing, and I’m so scared to say the wrong thing because I don’t want them to freak out on me.

That’s why I hate alcoholism. You are walking on eggshells. With ladies, you could trigger the meltdown any moment. With guys, you could trigger the tantrum any moment.

They all just hang out together and act like it’s chill, while their kids hang out in the basement.

As one of those kids, it really was fun though. Our parents would get plastered and be screaming upstairs. We’d do anything to stay entertained. It was always fun at first. But we were kids. We’d get tired, start tugging on our mom’s sleeves, begging her to go home, just wanting to feel safe enough to fall asleep.

Then you’re stuck in the car with your drunk dad, driving home, acting like an idiot, swerving all over, driving through ditches for fun. Your mom starts getting upset, and completely shuts down and ignores everyone. And you’re just praying you’ll be home soon, just wanting to sleep.

Those kids I grew up with, it was so weird. Our parents would get drunk, then we’d go to school and see each other. I dont know it was just weird. I feel bad for one of them, his mom is so bad now. Like can barely function anymore.

It’s all so weird. Then they all started fucking each other. All of them are divorced and remarried to each other. Okay not all of them, but a strange amount.

The worst fucker is still dogging his wife RELIGIOUSLY. She just sits there and takes it. Like I feel so bad for his daughter, and I miss her so much. But things are different. Me, her, and my best friend used to be inseparable. Now she lives in the big house on a lake, where they throw crazy parties. Her dad sells everyone drugs. He’s the one who owns the other bar and grill I worked at. He would try to fuck every waitress he could. I could write a book purely about the stories at that restaurant. That’s literally where I grew up. We’d stay the night at their house, and drive there early in the morning. We’d open the claw machine with the key and steal stuffed animals. We’d connect the microphone to the big speakers and sing and tell stories. I’d go there with my dad almost every night. I’d go hide in the office, nobody cared. My dad would give me twenty dollar bills to waste on the claw machine. Just to distract me so he could drink some more. Now he wonders why I always want his money. That was how our relationship worked. He’d drink, I’d run up and stand there with my hand out. He’d say, “you’re running me dry kid!”

No Marc, you’re running yourself dry. Maybe tonight, my friends dad will bring you another baggie.

My dad told my sister, “I like it when the girls your age call me hot.”

SHUT UP DAD WE KNOW. WE FUCKING KNOW. And I dont know why they always feel the need to tell me. Your fugly bald ass will be standing there and they’re like, “your dad’s kind of hot.” HES LIKE FUCKING 5’3” SHUT THE FUCK UP! LIKE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? You just saw the fat wad of cash in his wallet and now you’re drooling.

[theuniverseawakens347]

Yal are some fucking children

EVERY FUCKING DAY YOU ANNOY ME W YOUR STUPIDITY AND LIES

LEE CLARITY NEVER HAD MY POLE I ASKED BEFORE I WENT IF I CUD PUT IT IN THE HOUSE - U SAID NO. NO PHONES OR LAPTOPS. ITS ALL MONITORED AND LOCKED AWAY. - SO BAYLEE FOR AND WITH LEE AS VIVICCA MY GOD MOM HOWD MY NUDES AND THE GIRLS PASS THEM AROUND FOR YOU!?

BITCH ASS CUNTS WHO ALL PARTOOK THEN “bitched me out for Baylee but she texting you what dumb shit to tell me so it looks like in front of Brooke cashay WILLINGLY FUCKED BASEL OR HAD SEX IN THE HOUSE W HER EX BF” - NO YOU BITCHES DID WEIRD SHIT - EVERYWHERE I FUCKING GO.

LEE YOU KNOW YOU FID EXTRA DUMB SHIT BEHIND HOWARDS BACK AND HOWARD I HATE YOU “teach her something different “ CAUSE YOU DOING THE MOST - WHEN I CAME OVER NOV 2023 and told you “lee be trying to put her hands on me when YOU walk out the room” you said hands in ur face “that’s NOT her character”

- YOU COVER AND LIE FOR HER EVEN AFTER GETTING EVIDENCE HI CAMERAS IN THE FUCKING HOUSE FROM HEATHERS MURDER AND HOWARD KNOWS - TOM.

Timothy peolko but it’s Lee confessing.

Anyways I DONT NEED TO BLOCK YOU TO LET YOU KNOW I DONT WANT TO TALK TO YOU WHILE YOU BEING CHILDISH TRISTAN. FUCKING RETARDED

I TOLD YOU WHAT I WANT YAL WANT TO BEEF FOR NO FUCKING RESON I DONT WANT TO BE AROUND ANY OF YOU WILLINGLY BEEFING FOR NO FUCKING REASON “it’s a due date” FUCK THE DATE UR RETARDED AND SO IS IT KEEPING ME HOMELESS TILL THEN - EVEN IN A HOMELESS SHELTER IM STILL FUCKING HOMELESS - SERVING FOOD IM NOT GOING TO FUCKING EAT ALLOWING 10 minute showers when I want longer - HELLO FUCKTARD CLARITY AGAIN LEE. FUCK YOU YOU NEED REHAB AND UR PUTTING IT IN ME. - ALL THE BUTCHES YOU HAD FAKE ME INDIA LOVE TO TEXT TRISTAN MY NUDES W THEIR DRUNK DRUG STORIES FOR LEE FUCKTARD GARLINGTON VIVICCA ANGELA BASKET KEKE

DICK WADS.

- I BLOCKED YOU 2020 BOTH LEE AND HOWARD BC UR FUCKING RETARDED W ADDICTION BEHAVIORS BUT CLAIM “sober” but always tell me “ the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome” - U TRYING TO MAKE ME LOOK INSANE CAUSE I WONT TAKE THE HOMELESS SHETLER - ITS INSANITY BO MATTER WHERE I GO AS LONG AS YOU INVOLVED IN MY LIFE - YOU TRYING TO GET TRISTAN TO DO THE DANCE W YOU LIKE HOWARD IN FULL BUT HES MORE ME THAN HOWARD IS - THATS THE SCARY FUCKING PARTS FOR YOU PARTENTS.

YOU SEE UR SELVES IN UR KIDS AND THE PPL YOU WILLINGLY FUCKED OVER AND WONT TURN YOURSELF INTO THE POLICE OR GET FUCKING ACTUAL HELP TO HEAL INSTEAD YOU SITTING THERE STILL POINTING THE FINGER AT SOMEONE ELSE AND TELLING THEM WHAT THEY NEED TO DO AND WORK ON

- LEE YOU WANTED TO BE A PARENT TO A BLACK CHILD .. bitch when YOU GON STOP FAILING ME YOU STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLE - Howard U JUST BE DOING SHIT TO GET BACK AT LEE FOR RUINING UR MARRIAGE W CHEATING ON YOUR WEDDING NIGHT DAY IDC AND STEALING MONEY OFF YOU or in ur name marriage etc AND THE BUSINESS YOU WORKED FOR - UR GOAL “she wants a child well make the child like me more than her” - CONGRATS YOU BOTH FUCKING FAILED AT WHAT YOU WANTED EXCEPT SUICIDE. YOU FUCKING IDIOTS.

- GET ME TO MY HOUSE OR A HOTEL WHERE I CAN SHOWER AND NOT BE BOTHERED BY FUCKING POINTLESS PPL DOING SHIT TO TEST ME FOR YOU - IMA GET WHAT I NEED NO MAYTER WHAT I CAN HANG FOR MY RIGHTFUL FAMILY DUE DAY BUT THE ISSUE IS YOU FUCKING COWS BRAIN BITCHES ILL ACTUALLY FORGIVE IMMA WANA BE BY MY SELF 2021 THANK YOU ASSWIPES - NOT WHAT YOU FUCKING WANTED BUT HAD YOU FUCKING TALKED TO ME UPFRONT IN FUCKING FULL WE WOULDN’T FUCKING BE HERE - LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE IMA GRIND HOW I DID 2020 WHEN SHANYCE AND JAMAL LEFT BUT YOU BITCHES PUTTING ME BACK WHERE I WAS COMFTY ALONE DUMBASS - I NEVR WANTED TO BE AROUND YOU THE WAY YOU WANA CODEPENDENCY ON ME.

- GOD GIVING YOU UR FUCKING LIFE PATH TO WALK AND BUILD UR KINGDOM - DROP A JEWL TO GET BACK IN TRACK WHEN YOU GET DISTRACTED…

But you satan ass bitch Lee and Howard w no fucking discipline want me and Tristan AND ALL MY RIGHTFUL FAMILY SMALL REGRESSED N HOMELESS WITHOUT LOVE LIKE YOU CAUSE YOU CANT COMPREHEND LOVE WAS A MATTER OF SELF - ALL MY FAMILY IS ME. YOU FUCKING DUMBASS BITCH .. the ones who AUTHENTICALLY LOOK LIKE ME AND SUPPORTING MAKING A MOCKERY OUT OF YOU.

India love and Coi LERAY a full fucking Lee “but Coi “ yeah bitch U SET ME UP FOR MURDER W THE INTENT TO REALLY FUCKING KILL ME AND BECOME ME - INDIA LOVE RETARTED ASS AND FUCK TARD LEE TO PASS TRISTAN AND FITKINGG ANOTHER BITCH WHO LOOK LIKE ME GOT MY FUCKING STEM CELLS IN THE BOTOX OR DOING CLOSE TO WHAT I DO .. BUT NOT ME.

And you my family Shanyce you really said “fucking cashay bf as her face and bri name over the internet to sell drugs is sooo cool and smart” - AJA MILES THINKING I DONT WANT YOU AROUND ME - OUR ARGUMENT 2021 WHEN YOU TRYING TO GET BACK COOL W ME AND I TOLD YOU FUCK YOU I HATE YOU YOU HAD NO REASON TO DO ANY OF THAT TO ME SO LEAAVE ME FOR GOOD BC YOU REALLY WEIRD MY NIGGA - U MAD AT ME CAUSE I TOOK YOU TO SEE “our homeless crack head mother” - WHAT UR GIVING ME SHANYCE NOT TALKING TO ME BUT ON INSTAGRAM FAKING ACCOUNTS OF ME YOU HATE AND BRI TO SELL AND BUY DRUGS OFF MY “friends” THEN SEND JAMAL YA NUDES KNOWING THAT MY EX WE LIVE WITH YOU STUPID BITCH ..

WHY WOULD YOU THINK THATS OKAY - NOT TALKING TO ME WHEN THE NIGGA WALK IN ON YOU NUDE .. how’s that my fault miss “I’m grown stop treating me like a kid” - FASHI BUT YOU ACTING LIKE A KID SO LEARN THE HARD WAY MISS “I wana move in w you and get our own spot together “ - cool bitch I would LOVE to live w my sister but get a job - Goes drug dealing and prostitution- THATS NOT WHAT I TAUGHT YOU ASSHOLE OR SPOKE TO YOU ABOUT

- I SOLD WEED FOR TRISTAN AND DID THAT SHIT BY MY LONELY BUT COUNTED MY 1/4 IN FRONT OF YOU CAUSE YOU SAID YOU ONLY SMOKE WEED - COOL I WANT MY OWN GROW OP ONE DAY SO LEARN THIS SHIT W ME SHANYCE .. - took you to one or two drop offs ass wipe. OF WEED ONLY.

PICK MY 1/2 lbs UP BY MYSELF. - NOT LETTING YOU HANG AROUND MORGAN ALONE BC YES I LOVE MY BEST FRIENDS BUT THEY BE ON WEIRD FUCKING SHIT WHEN IM NOT AROUND WHY WOULD I LEAVE MY LITTLE SISTER ALONE THAT I GOT LOVE FOR - EVEN IF IM DOING WHAT THEY DOING ON A 1/2 SCALE THEY DOING SOME EXTRA DUMBASS FUCKING SHIT AND IM NOT ABOUT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YAL DOING THAT

- THE SHOP DROP FOR TRISTAN DALOE TATTOO BUT THE OTHER .. I CAME W SHANYCE MY SISTER UPSTAIRS whoever tattooing and the fat one on the couch Yal already giving me the “let’s fuck her eyes” 1/2 way - show you the weed you not feeling it and I’m not feeling you - U ALSO TESTING ME READING YO MINDS ASS WIPE - “you got anything else” yeah it’s in the car I’ll be back hold on - NEVER COME BACK CAUSE YOURE A WEIRD SET UP BITCH.

Shanyce how you here getting pimped over text - LEE GARLINGTON JAMAL SAME AS ME .. JAMAL HOW YOU POSING AS NIGGAS GETTING NUDES OFF MY SISTER - HI FOSTER CARE ROISIN PORTION OF PAYING HER RENT , huh Brianna “big sister” - NICE CHILD MOLESTATION AND PROSTITUTION- MAE PAYNE. JYNYVY SCOTT.

[harrison-abbott]

Halloween

You remember scooping out the pumpkin goo when you were a kid, with your skinny wrists and a big spoon, grinding out the seeds and strands, with your fingers getting all slippery.

You remember cutting the pumpkin a cracked mouth and triangle eyes and when you put the candles in it seemed like a real head.

You were too young and scared to watch scary movies yet.

There was an attic with a waste bin bag, filled with damp old costumes that your elder brothers used to wear.

There a proper hockey mask which looked pretty fucking scary on anybody. And it was a man’s mask so it looked extra scary on a kid.

The bottles of fake blood didn’t look like blood at all. More like Ribena juice. And it didn’t stain anything, only dripped away like water.

And the fake knives were clunky plastic affairs but you remembered once when you were under a security camera in the high school and your brother told you to put the knife away because the cameramen would reckon it was a real knife if they saw it on their end.

Your mother loaded up on chocolates and peanuts and oranges for the kids coming around trick or treating.

We call it ‘guising’ in Scotland.

And you and your mates got dressed up and went ‘guising’ around the neighbourhood.

One time you went with your hockey mask on. And your gabble of mates went up to a house that was a distance further than you usually went. And this woman answered the door, holding a baby. She asked, “Do we know you?” And we said no. She said, “No,” and she shut the door. Even though we were only ten, we properly scared her, and we felt bad, and went somewhere else.

You remember the smell of gunpowder in the air, because Halloween is closer to Guy Fawkes night. And back in those days (the late 90s, and the 00s), fireworks were cheap to buy. And kids would hang outside of supermarkets and bribe adults to buy them for them. Then just burst them all across the city. Because young folks can’t access alcohol or drugs or whatnot so they turn to things like fireworks instead to get a kick out of the experience.

And us younger kids would go psychotic of the sugar we got from the houses that did accept us as guisers. As most of the houses we went to were keen to hear us sing a song or tell a joke, etc.

There was the smell of woodsmoke, too. From the bonfires lit in the forest – that witchy, wavering, conniving scent that mingled in the wintry air.

One time your friend was given a £5 note from one of the ladies in the houses, who knew him. And, £5 back in the early 00s was a big amount of money, especially for a boy, and we were all chuffed and envious of him.

And nowadays, now that you’re an adult, you see the Halloween stalls in the supermarket. With the costumes and so on. And as soon as you go in to the shop there are these huge crates of pumpkins on sale – quite like when Christmas comes around and they have all of those dead trees for you to buy at the front doors.

The last time somebody came to the house, trick or treaters on Halloween, was about seven years ago. Longer than that, maybe. There aren’t many kids around in the neighbourhood anymore. And, even with Guy Fawkes, the fireworks are super expensive. And kids still do light the rockets. It’s just not as constant as it was when you were a kid. Or, maybe you just don’t appreciate the sounds as much as you did whence in childhood.

[briamichellewrites]

96

I’m not angry. I promise. I get how this happened. I will be there for you and our baby. If I don’t answer, it’s because I’m in class. I’ll text you back when I can. – Jason

That reassured Bria. He was not ignoring her. Rather, he was busy. She got a visit from Brad. He heard what happened from Mike and he wanted to see her. What did he tell him? Just that she was having a hard time with her mental health and needed to be in rehab for three months. Possibly more. He was vague with the details. She guessed he was protecting privacy. Did she want to talk about it? He would respect it if she didn’t. Yeah, she could.

As they sat by the pool, she told him about her miscarriage and her mental breakdown. When she was going through the intake process, they discovered she was pregnant again. Was he the father? No, her boyfriend, Jason was. He was his younger brother. After her miscarriage, she flew to Cambridge for a week to be with him.

He was getting his graduate degree at Harvard. That’s why she was in Cambridge. Yeah. She couldn’t tell him everything over text. He understood why she couldn’t tell him. What was he studying at Harvard? It had to do with landscape architecture. That’s what he wanted to do. She thought he had two years left before he graduated. He showed her what he was doing but it went right over her head. That made him laugh. Where were her animals? They were hanging out in her room.

She would show him. Bark! Bark! They heard barking as they walked to her door. Once it was open, Missy and Buddy were there waiting for her with anger. Human, you abandoned us again! She crouched down and petted them while apologizing. You’re forgiven, human. Where were the cats? They didn’t know. They were around somewhere. Those cats were always doing something.

She had a nice room. He looked around. There was something he wanted to tell her. He found out recently that he had a twelve-year-old daughter from a short-term relationship. Her name was Jayde Carter. Where was she? She was in foster care. Her biological mother was in a psychiatric hospital. Was she born under the influence of drugs? He didn’t know. What was her mother’s name? Malisha Carter. She gave him a look, so he asked her what was wrong.

“That’s my mother’s name. Malisha Carter. She’s in a psychiatric hospital.”

“You’re kidding. Oh my god.”

He got out his phone from his pocket and pulled up a picture of Jayde. She looked similar to her. That meant she was her sister. She didn’t know what to say. They could not ever date because he was technically her stepfather. Former stepfather? Either way, it didn’t feel right. She wanted to keep him as a friend. He would do that. When she was comfortable, maybe she could meet her sister.

Jayde had been in foster care her whole life. She moved from home to home so much, she was used to living in a suitcase. Anna was a great foster mom, but she wasn’t her mother. She got along well with her son, Otis. At four years old, he loved everything dinosaurs. He pretended he was a dinosaur. During the day, he went to preschool while his mommy worked. It was an all-day program, which made it a lot easier for Anna. He went to bed before she did, so she got one on one time.

Anya was good at letting the dogs know when they were annoying her. It only took a swipe of her paw to get them to leave her alone. She was cleaning herself when Missy came over and sniffed her. Meow. She barked when she felt her paw hitting her face. I’m taking a bath. Go away! She grumbled as she walked over to the humans.

“Leave your sister alone, dude”, Bria said.

She got up on the couch and rested her head on her lap. All she wanted to do was sniff her. Cats were so weird. They should be dogs like her. She petted her and scratched her head. Thank you, human. That makes me feel better. He laughed because she was such a good pet mother. She treated them like they were her children. He was excited about her having a baby.

An unplanned pregnancy had to be scary. He couldn’t even imagine what she was going through with her emotions. It had to feel like whiplash. She found out she was pregnant while going through a miscarriage. While going through a mental breakdown and grief, she found out she was pregnant again. The baby’s health was so uncertain, that she and her boyfriend had a right to be concerned. What if it happened again? That would be devastating times ten.

Bark! Bark! Growl. Mike was watching Misty get angry at her own reflection. She raised her paw, causing the other puppy to do the same. He called her over to where he was. She put her paw on his leg with her toy in her mouth. He laughed and picked her up. After setting her on the chair beside him, she smiled at him with her tongue out. Good girl. It was a quiet day where they had nothing planned.

He was working on music on his laptop after going outside for a walk. She loved sniffing everywhere and exploring. Her nose picked up scents she never noticed before. She wondered if her human could also smell them. He was a good human who fed her, took her for walks and played with her. She did get into trouble. He knew she was just a puppy who didn’t know any better. Instead of getting angry, he corrected her behavior.

When she went potty outside, he gave her a treat. Good girl! Yes, I am! Thank you, human! Since adopting her, he felt happier. He had a new purpose and that was taking care of her. In return, she provided him with unconditional love and laughter. When she dropped her toy, she looked down at the floor and whined. He bent over and picked it up for her. Thank you, human.

It’s Brad. I just got done visiting Bria. Can I meet you somewhere or should I call you? Either one works for me. – Brad

You can come over. My dog and I are just hanging out. – Mike

He sent him his address. It took him forty five minutes because he kept getting lost. When he finally arrived, he heard barking coming from inside. Mike opened the door and greeted him while making sure Misty didn’t escape. Hi, human. She sniffed him before following them back into his studio. Could he get him anything? He offered him a beer. Yeah, thank you.

After getting that for him, he asked about Bria. She was in a good mood, though she still seemed sad. They had a conversation about her mother. How did he know about her mother? He found out he had a twelve year old daughter with a woman named, Malisha Carter. His eyes were wide. Oh my god!

“It’s my job to ask you about a woman named, Anna Hillinger. Bria said you knew her.”

“Yeah, she’s my ex girlfriend. She cheated on me and got pregnant back in 1999 or 2000. How do you know her?”

“She’s my daughter’s foster mother.”

“Oh my god! That’s crazy! What did Bria say about it?”

“She told me everything she knew about her mother. The reason why I’m telling you is because of your relationship with Bria. There’s a possibility Jayde was born under the influence of drugs. She mentioned a car accident.”

Yeah, it was him and Bria. They were walking back to their cars with their friend, Bradford when they were both hit by a driver going over the speed limit. He went over the car and she went under. She had a broken leg and arm. He was relatively okay with cuts and bruises.

She was in so much pain, she went into shock. They both stayed in the hospital overnight because he hit his head. They wanted to make sure he didn’t have a concussion. He didn’t. What happened to Bradford? Nothing.

He was in a different location, so he saw everything that happened. They learned from the police that the driver was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. They also found out that the driver was Bria’s mother.

They decided to let her take a plea deal because of her mental state and her history of severe abuse. Now she had another daughter. Snore. They looked down at Misty, who had fallen asleep with her toy beside her. They laughed. Brad took a drink of his beer.

@zoeykaytesmom @feelingsofaithless @alina-dixon

[iatrophilosophos]

I Dislike that post about psychosis & mysterious disappearances for reasons I can't totally articulate so here

Psychotic breaks can happen to virtually anybody, *and*

We don't have to treat them as a constant threat of disaster (yes, even if we're psychotic ourselves or have a family history) & can Do Stuff to reduce their impacts

Some stuff you should consider doing right now/this week/this month if you are afraid of having a psychotic break, or just do in general bc it's good shit to have in your back pocket:

US specific: Create a locally-appropriate psychiatric advanced directive. This is a document that specifies your wishes in the event you are deemed unfit to make your own medical decisions. Laws are woefully inconsistent and these directives *may not* be legally binding; so it may be up to the discretion of a provider to actually follow it; but it's still better than nothing. You can specify in your advance directive things like treatments you do and dont consent to (i would be specific and intentional here; stipulating that you dont consent to a specific class of medication e.g. SSRIs is more likely to be honored than No Medication); people to contact; people (like a parent) who you do NOT want to be involved in or privy to your treatment. Heres a page with resources and directions by state. You may need to get this document notarized.

US specific: assign a healthcare proxy. This is a legally-binding document that specifies who is allowed to make medical decisions on your behalf. By default, your healthcare proxy is your closest living next of kin. Even if you get along with your parents, siblings or kids; they may not actually be the people you want making decisions for you for Any number of reasons. Discuss the idea with whoever you'd like you be your proxy! Laws vary by state and you will likely need to get this document notarized.

Create an informal advance directive with friends and loved ones. This is just for yall and can include shit like not calling the cops, trying to resist EMS or hospitalization, what you want people to do to support you if you DO get hospitalized, and anything else. If you have experienced psychotic breaks in the past, this is a good place to put any advice or requests for your loved ones. It's a good idea to do this as part of a discussion and invite the people you're making this plan with to ask your consent about stuff they think they might try to do to help. It's also a good idea to have a few of these for different people/situations: your advance directive with a roommate you're not that close to might just be "call xyz instead of the cops".

Self-reflect. What are you *worried* would happen during a psychotic break? What commitments can you make to yourself & plans can you make with other people to control for it? A good friend once told me "I really want to try MDMA because i think it would be good for me, but I'm worried it would trigger a genetic disposition to mania and I'd go out for days and forget my kids". My advice to her was "hire a babysitter who knows what's up and get a friend to hang before you try it". It worked out great--she had a nice time AND got to experience the bodymind state she was terrified of, get some practice functioning within it, and proved to herself that her commitment to taking care of her children is a choice she makes out of her own free will that she is free to *continue* making regardless of how nuts she is.

To the point above: practice being nuts. Let yourself explore the states you're afraid of and learn how to cope, communicate and function while crazy. Psychotic breaks are scary because they're alienating and novel. Set yourself up to communicate even when you don't experience the same reality with someone via your informal advance directive; and don't let psychosis become the big bad scary monster. Stay up all night, believe weird shit for fun, switch up your routine, go put yourself in new and unfamiliar environments. Do drugs if you wanna! Have weird, potentially bad experiences with a friend and aftercare and learn that you have free will regardless of the familiarity or comfort of your surroundings while you've got a safety net.

Have an aversion plan. This is what you do if you start feeling out of your depth. It can be behavioral, social etc--stay home and sleep, have someone come sit with you, eat a big nutritious meal--any activity or situation that you think will help keep you safe/help you avoid the scariest or most dangerous facets of what you think a psychotic break could mean for your life.

None of this is a surefire way to *not* have a psychotic break or even to have one be completely free of undesirable results. But they are real, tangible steps that help a lot more than being terrified of ever getting 2nd hand weed smoke or living in fear that some day everything you know/are might just disintegrate.

Advance directive resource link 1 more time bc Tumblr hates actually inserting my links in posts:

[l-vd-laar]

Cheerful, Confusing, and A Little Scary – Loss of Life Album Review

From 80s synth pop to existential power ballads.

The awkwardly satirical duo known as MGMT are not just a source of internet memes (the “Electric Feel” bass cover incident) and TikTok hits, but are responsible for some of the iconic songs of the past two decades, such as their 2007 single “Kids”, which still haunts the world today.

Over the years, VanWyngarden and Goldwasser’s project has earned the reputation of being slightly odd and “not your typical pop group”. The golden duo do not shy away from themes of disdain for our current cellphone society, expressing their snarky comments through either cheerful pop or disorientating dissonance. This “weirdness” came out especially strong on their 2018 release Little Dark Age, which featured peculiarities such as “She Works Out to Much” and “When You Die”. After a solid career of mocking the music industry – and declaring their love for Brian Eno – MGMT release their fifth studio album Loss of Life. Although, Loss of Life is still filled with references to a time long gone, the band shows maturity by taking stabs of satire and cynicism from their previous lyrical aspects, and work it into the nuances of the music.

Design by John Baldessari, Noses & Ears, Etc. (Part Two): Two (Flesh) Faces with (Blue) Ears and                                                             Noses, Two (Flesh) Hands and Hobby Horse, 2006.

The album kicks off by pestering the listener with an immediate nostalgia inducing prelude on “Loss of Life (part 2)” – We’ll come back to discuss the “part 2” and why this would be in an opening track title? The first of many sly shenanigans. The track starts out with a gritty vinyl sound that introduces a music box tune, accompanied by robot-like voice that speaks of uncanny observations of our world and tells the story of a Welsch bard. It is somewhat reminiscent of “Fitter Happier” by Radiohead, but more cryptic.

VanWyngarden recently explained that their earlier success had given them the freedom to focus more on the music for this record, and this becomes apparent throughout the musical arrangements. An example of this is the bridge in “Nothing Changes”, which offers a lovely intricate symbiosis between brass and synth, which builds up and down and finally flows over smoothly into the final section of the song.

Referencing to the sound of 2000 nostalgia, “Phradie’s song” exhibits the cynical attitude that MGMT is known for, but in a more sophisticated manner. The song starts out with a rather cheerful guitar strum, which is soon accompanied by the joyful ringing of bicycle bells and whistles, one again confronting the listener with looming nostalgia. There has been an internet trend going on of late 90s/early 2000 kids reminiscing about the aesthetics of their childhood era. “Phradie’s song” somehow captures this feeling of longing for childlike unawareness, reminding us that this is something we will never get back. The song then goes on as a lullaby and dissolves into something ungraspable. Comforting and threatening at the same time.

“I Wish I Was Joking” is another close gathering of oddities. The chords progressions border on eerie, and the constant unresolvedness tricks the ears. The song makes a reference to drugs, and the construction of its sonic body does in fact stimulate a feeling of still hanging out at an afterparty, while you should have gone home hours ago. Now you find yourself on a dirty couch, fighting a battle with gravity. This same anti-climactic feeling can be found on “Dancing In Babylon”, which features Christine and the Queens. This song lacks climax in the sense that it’s structure seems to tease a chorus, but never actually finalizes this promise.

Lastly, to lay on the Brit of Britpop, the closing track of the album “Loss of Life” (there is it), the album returns back to its opening music box melody. However, this time it finally gives us the resolve that we have been waiting for the entire album in a cosmic dreamscape Stg. Pepper-esque goodbye. It holds on to the uncomfortable nostalgia that runs through the entire album like a thread, but intermixes it with glimpses of hopeful sounds – such as the return of the brass. Only to resolve into some demonic sound and send us back to “part 2”, where it all began. Suggesting that the album is a circular never ending experience.

Instead of communicating their message through words, MGMT have embodied the lost souls of postmodernism in their music, showing real maturity and leaving me confused and scared of a potential “Bubblegum dog” following me in my nightmares. Yet it should be considered that this was a close analysis of the album, which I have listened to multiple times in a row. And what may be the biggest trick of all, is that if you were to listen to it casually, it can also pass a just a pleasant pop record. The pastiche and satire have been integrated in such a subtle way, that it does not stand in the way of the “listenability” of the album. And although the record has been received with mixed reactions, the duo has shown incredibly musical integrity. And for those who stand with one foot outside the borders of reality, Loss of Life might help you slip out the other one as well.