#anyway yeah im so excited for everything next year. the secret project and the new chapters...

[hall0wedwyrm]

THE UTDR NEWSLETTER??? HELLO??

"It will make you look like someone with an important connection to you. / Their love will become yours. Your love will become theirs." screaming I can't do this

Berdly says "as an ACT. of. CHARITY."??????

("You. me. Festival." what are we getting? sushi of course! SORRY)

"I wish it could snow whenever I wanted." STOP

[descendantofthesparrow]

Soulmate au! Countdown - Harry Hook x Reader -oneshot

soulmate au idea sent in by Anonymous 

=

Everyone in the world was born with a watch, not on their wrists or anywhere attached to them, just a simple watch that would appear when a new soul was born into the world. Doctors would blink, and suddenly, next to the new babe, was a watch.

A watch that had a set date of years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the new soul would meet their soulmate, the one destined to love them forever.

Some watches were simple ones, a simple leather band with a plain clock attached to go around their wrist. Some got more…exotic clocks, one person, whose soulmate was an astrologist, watch had planets instead of hands to tell the time.(luckily for the person, who didn’t know how to read the time by looking at planets, there was still a small digital timer in the middle just above the sun) some had intricately carved pocket watches, some had sundials.

Prince Ben’s watch had confused some people, being a pure gold and silver watch, rusted slightly (and unable to be buffed to perfection as so many tried) with a horned dragon decorating the top, the back engraved with thorned vines. It wasn’t till years later, as Ben locked eyes with Mal, the daughter of Maleficent, did the watches ticking stop (small A/N; Ben and Audrey don’t date since they know they aren’t meant to be already. Okay let's get back into it!)

Audrey’s watch hung off a silver necklace, the top cover being diamond-like glass that seemed to shine like magic. Her watch had stopped when she met Chad at only six months old, his rose gold wristwatch stopping at the same time.

Doug's watch, a gorgeous gold-plated pocket watch decorated with heart-shaped red rubies, had stopped when he first locked eyes with Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen, who for a small while had denied that her own watch had stopped ticking, and had only admitted it after she and her friends had proclaimed their decision to turn their backs on their parent's evil ways.

Most people your age had met their soulmate already, you knew some who had yet to meet theirs but mostly everyone had already been found.

Not that you personally knew that.

You hardly talked to anyone really, so how were you to know if someone had found their soulmate yet or not.

You were just a regular person in a school of the descendants of heroes and royalty, a loner at that. The only interesting about you was your watch.

It was a gorgeous gold watch with thin black paint under the gold curved detailing that looked like waves, surrounding the outer rim of the cover, with an anchor and a ship's steering wheel in the middle of the cover, the back was a carved compass, the entire thing connected to a strong bronze chain.

You admired it every day, excitement and anxiety running through you as every second passed. And those feelings were amplified recently.

The clock now read seven days, seven hours, eight minutes, and forty seconds. It was only that until you met your soulmate.

You only hoped they wouldn’t think you weren’t worth their time…as everyone else did.

-

Harry had been born with a pretty plain-looking pocket watch, smooth and silver metal protecting the gears.

You could imagine the surprise he felt when he finally opened it for the first time. The inner works of his watch were beautiful, the silver metal had turned to gold, curving details surrounded the hands and timer, a shining scale texture covered the inside of the cover, never leaving a residue on his finger when he traced it.

Many villain kids were told to never open their watches, being told that it was pointless to even look since they would never need their soulmate in the first place.

Some obeyed, some, like Harry, had gotten too curious and looked anyway, and some just looked because they could.

And Harry couldn't say he regretted looking, every day he grabbed his watch and popped it open, smiling as the ticking hands signified the ever-coming day of meeting his soulmate.

Like now, it read seven days, five hours, three minutes, and seven seconds. Coincidently, it matched the same day he would be going to Auradon prep, seven months after king Ben had invited the original four to Auradon.

His closest friend, Uma, had a plan to get the wand and do what the original four couldn’t. but Harry had another plan.

He wanted to meet his soulmate, he knew they couldn’t have been on the isle, he had met basically everyone on the isle, there was no other explanation than for his soulmate to be in Auradon.

He looked up from his watch to gaze at the bright lights of Auradon, his breath visible as he let out a sigh and leaned against the rails of the lost revenge. “you ready for next week?” he suppressed a flinch as Uma suddenly appeared next to him, joining him to look at  Auradon.

“aye” he simply muttered back, clenching his pocket watch in his hand. He looked away slightly as Uma turned towards him, her brow quirked.

“…you want to find them, don’t you?” Uma asked, turning back to Auradon and resting her chin in her hand.

Harry stayed silent.

Uma reached out and squeezed Harry's shoulder “I won't stop you from doing that, I know our parents told us that soulmates are bullshit but I could give less of a fuck, if you decide not to go through with everything because of them, I’ll leave you two alone…” Harry sighed in slight relief and turned to Uma.

“even if it would ruin yer plans?” Harry asked softly, laughing as Uma grumbled a bit.

“yeah yeah…if you’re happy im happy” Harry tossed his arm over Uma’s shoulder and pulled her into his side, grinning as she quietly complained at the hug.

“Thank yeh Uma” he whispered, closing his eyes as Uma sighed against him and hugged him back.

“you’re my best friend Harry, I would do anything for you” Harry smiled against her hair, squeezing her shoulder a bit before letting her go as she started to bat at his chest “Alright alright that’s enough, come on we got night shit to do” Harry snorted and shook his head a bit, grabbing his hat from the milk crate next to him and flipping it on, whistling slightly as he followed Uma off the ship.

-

You looked up from your summer history essay as a group of girls rushed up to the window, giggling to themselves as they pointed out whatever it was they were talking about.

‘oh right’ you mentally sighed, closing your book and packing it away, knowing that the study hall you were in was going to be filled with the laughter of these girls for who knows how long ‘the new vks’

You spared a glance back at the girls, sighing wistfully to yourself as they smiled amongst each other.

What you would give to have friends like that, but you had always been closed in on yourself and always froze up when someone tried to talk to you, that you had never gotten the chance to make friends.

You shrugged your bag over your shoulder and walked out of the study hall “where to go now” you whispered to yourself, taking out your pocket watch and smiling slightly at it, rubbing your thumb against the wheel before popping it open.

Six hours, forty-five minutes, and seven seconds.

You would meet your soulmate today.

You closed the watch and held it against your chest, letting out a giggly sigh and walking towards the other end of the dorms to get to the other study hall so you would write your essay in peace.

Behind you, you heard king Ben talking, taking a glance back you saw a flash of a scarlet red coat pass by the entrance to the hallway you had just entered. You brushed it off and looked back in front of you.

-

One and a half hours, ten minutes, and forty seconds.

Harry stared anxiously at his watch, his foot tapping rapidly against the floor of his new room. “you know if you just sit and stare at that thing it's not going to go any faster” Gil offered, setting his new laptop down and sitting next to Harry, reaching out to close the watch.

Harry blinked back into reality, pouting at Gil slightly. Gil just gave him a look and pushed the watch towards Harry's chest “sitting in here won't help you find them either, go explore or something, you might find them easier” Harry huffed and grabbed his watch, sticking it in his pocket and walking out of the room “you’ll thank me later!”

-

You groaned a bit as you rolled your shoulders, you had finished your essay, along with a handful of other projects, and had decided you needed a break. So it was off to your “secret” spot near the dorms, it was well hidden by the forest and you had to cross a hanging bridge to get to it so hardly anyone knew about it.

You shrugged off your top and pants, kicking off your shoes and setting everything next to your towel and watch before diving in.

Underneath the water your body shimmered, your legs turning to a transitioning (f/c) and (f/c) tail with a strong fabric-like tail, scales the same color as your tail appeared next to your eyes and trailed down your cheeks, your shoulders being covered as well.

You let out a soft sigh as you swam through the clear water, trailing your fingers across the smooth rocks that lay at the bottom of the lake.

You picked up a particularly shiny clear and black one, swimming back up to the surface and examining it, humming to yourself as you waded through the water.

-There once was a ship that put to sea/ And the name of that ship was the Billy o' Tea/ The winds blew hard, her bow dipped down/ Blow my bully boys blow-

You started to sing one of your favorite sea shanties aloud, closing your eyes and letting yourself drift across the surface of the lake as your voice echoed around you.

- Soon may the Wellerman come/ To bring us sugar and tea and rum/ One day, when the tonguing' is done/ We'll take our leave and go-

-

Harry sighed quietly as he walked around the grounds of Auradon prep, tubbing his thumb against the smooth metal of his watch as the comforting -tick tock- of its gears rang in his ears.

He sighed again as he stopped in the middle of a pathway, running his hand through his messy hair. He pulled out the watch and quirked his brow.

three minutes, forty seconds.

Suddenly something caught his attention, he turned his head towards the forest, his lips separating as a lovely drifted towards him.

He started walking towards it, entering into the forest and pushing past the bushes that covered the main path. He quickly walked over the hanging bridge that led him directly to a sparkly crystal-clear lake.

And wading in the water of that lake was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen or heard.

- No line was cut, no whale was freed/ An' the captain's mind was not on greed/ But he belonged to the Whaleman's creed/ She took that ship in tow -

As he walked closer to the mermaid, he didn’t notice the timer on the watch tick down to the seconds.

3…2...1.

Suddenly the mermaid looked up from their rock and gasped, her glowing (e/c) eyes locking with his ocean blue.

The ticking stopped.

The mermaid squealed in embarrassment and ducked under the water, Harry quickly snapped out of his stupor and ran towards the edge of the lake, kneeling at it and looking around for the mermaid who had suddenly disappeared. “where did yeh go?” he whispered, yelping and falling back on his butt as the mermaid suddenly popped up in front of his face and tried to reach for her items behind Harry.

He watched her struggle to reach toward them before she groaned and flopped on the ground, her top half lying pitifully on the dry ground as her tail angrily hit the surface of the water.

Harry let out a soft chuckle and looked behind him, spotting a gold pocket watch resting just next to a (f/c) towel, he glanced back at the mermaid for a moment before reaching out for the watch and gently handing it to the mermaid.

She quickly popped it open and gasped.

Harry watched as the mermaid just stared at her watch, then slowly look up at him. He took out his watch and popped it open, stopping as he realized the clock had stopped.

00:00:00:00:00:00 blinked rapidly

Harry looked back at the mermaid and turned his watch towards her. She reached out slightly, looking at him for permission to take it.

He pushed it into her hand and she set it next to her watch, a smile growing on her face as the blinking of the timers synchronized perfectly. Only soulmate watches could sync perfectly as they did.

She looked back up at Harry with a wide grin, Harry's heart fluttering like crazy as she did.

“I found you” she whispered in the most melodic voice, squeaking a bit as Harry stood and started to strip out of his clothes “what are you doing?!” she yelled, pushing off the edge and diving down under the water a bit, only her eyes and the top of her head above the water.

“joinin’ yeh,” Harry responded simply, kicking off his shoes and pants and tossing them aside with his shirt, jacket, and belts.

Once he was down to just his underwear, he jumped into the water next to his soulmate, closing his eyes as he sank into the surprisingly deep lake.

Almost immediately after he jumped in, arms wrapped around his waist and kept him afloat. Harry cracked open his eyes to see the glowing ones of his soulmate, their pupils slanted as they stared back at him.

Harry let a smile grow on his lips as he and his soulmate floated under the water. Then Harry's body proceeded to realize he was underwater and that he needed air.

His soulmate watched him look up, realize what he was doing, and grabbed his face. Harry looked at them and let out a muffled squeak as she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.

He snapped his eyes shut and felt his face burn with a blush as she licked his lips and opened his mouth, breathing into him.

She pulled back and giggled, which oddly wasn’t muffled. Harry opened one of his eyes and pouted slightly as his soulmate covered her mouth with one of her hands as she laughed at his expression.

He took a breath to say something, but then realized he was breathing underwater. He gave her a wide-eyed look and she giggled again.

“mermaid kisses can let the person breath and speak underwater” her voice purred, grabbing his hands and pulling him up to the surface. Harry shook his head, smirking as his soulmate squealed a bit as the water droplets hit her.

“I’m Harry” Harry spoke first, swimming slightly closer to his soulmate and pressing a soft kiss to her cheek “Harry Hook.”

“(y-y/n) (l/n)” she squeaked slightly, Harry smirking at the heat that burned against his lips as he pressed another kiss to her cheek.

“I think” he pulled back and pressed a kiss to her other cheek “you and I are going to get along very well~” he purred, grinning as (y/n) set her forehead against his.

“whys that?” she hummed, pushing her lips together as Harry tightly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him.

“a pirate and a mermaid? What's a better match than tha’?”

-end-

Short but sweet, might do another one of the suggestions! Thanks for reading!

permtaglist

@queer-cosette @sephiralorange

@lunanight2012 @daughter-of-the-stars11

@musicarose @remembered-license

@random-thoughts-003 @jatp-rules-my-life

@verboetoperee @imtryingthisout @thecaptainsgingersnap

@rintheemolion​

[ceabu]

Okay okay so I’ve been having Thoughts™ on this whole “Gamzee is raised with Rose” AU and I would like to share them before all the bouncing they’re doing rattles them right out of my head.

Okay so the main thing I’ve been thinking is that troll eggs have been showing up on Earth for decades. There’s a whole secret research project studying their behavior and what can be gleaned of their culture through their language and the various objects the eggs are delivered with. In an effort to prepare the trolls for integration into human society and make researching their natural behavior easier, the trolls are assigned a human parent to care for them (usually one of the researchers, such as Ms. Lalonde), preferably one with children because siblings = extra socialization (and in turn, human society is being prepared for the day the gov’t announces the existence of trolls by lots of propaganda in mainstream media showing humans and horned critters—very troll-like—interacting peacefully. Alien/demon/monster-fuckers are much more mainstream.).

Gamzee’s egg, along with his name, sign, and another book on the clown cult is the most recent delivery (nobody really knows who or what keeps giving them troll eggs, but like, free research subjects/weaponizable assets). It was put into the care of Dr. Lalonde, a prominent researcher in the field with a two-month old daughter, Rose.

So Gamzee is raised on Earth, by Dr. Lalonde, alongside Rose. He learns most of Alternian through the collective subconscious that trolls have, as well as from his various teachers (again, this research project extends back decades. The humans have pretty much figured out written Alternian by now). Gamzee also learns all that the humans know of Alternian history and culture (quadrants, culling, the hemospectrum, the significance of the symbols, lusii, hives), but for the most part, grows up absorbing human history and culture. He’s also taught how to fight. He grows up pretty much in isolation besides his sister and mother and various other researchers, but is otherwise fairly socially competent.

Gamzee’s mild anger issues are addressed, and, for the sake of Rose’s safety, she is also taught how to fight and Gamzee is taught to not use violence as a first resort (and he loves his mother and loves seeing her happy so he does his very best to be good and helpful because it makes her happy. And though the few times she's disappointed in him are rare, Gamzee takes them to heart anyway and does his best to not dissapoint her). So he’s not as readily violent as a troll raised on Alternia, but he’s still got claws and chucklevoodoos and fangs. In fact, the argument could be made that he’s slightly more dangerous than canon Gamzee, as this Gamz doesn’t grow up as a malnourished sopor addict. He’s got the beginnings of some musculature, some actual meat on his bones, and is in general a lot more observant and active than canon Gam.

Where my thoughts that I am infodumping into your ask box like so much verbal diarrhea get interesting, however, is with SBURB/SGRUB. Of course, while just throwing the other eleven beta trolls onto Earth at six sweeps is an amazing and adorable idea, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the game.

So the beta kids start playing SBURB and the world starts ending. Everything’s on fire, so Rose grabs Gamzee’s hand and tries to get herself and her little brother to safety.

And then suddenly, Gamzee’s gone. One second he’s right behind Rose, the next he’s just… gone. She looks and looks, but cannot find him. Cannot confirm whether he’s okay or not.

And Gamzee? One second, he’s following his sister, trusting her to lead them both to safety. The next, he’s dragged away and dumped onto another troll, but one his age instead of the few adult trolls he’s met. He has no idea where Rose is, or if she’s okay, and he’s surrounded by strangers.

See, when the trolls start their SGRUB session, Karkat gets a troll that none of them have seen before dumped on top of him, with a message that basically equates to “He’s your problem now. Don’t let him die.” So now the red team has a sixth member, Karkat has a new headache, and Gamzee is suddenly stuck with a bunch of trolls his age.

So the two sessions occur, with both Rose and Gamzee being worried for each other and not knowing if the other is okay. Rose has her three human friends, and Gamzee manages to endear himself to Karkat and befriend Tavros easily, but both of them definitely miss each other.

(Also Gamzee feeling lowkey alienated from the other trolls because as much as he understands the language and has a basic grasp of the culture, he’s still an outsider, still a stranger they didn’t know prior who’s just a little too strange and different from them to be so easily accepted. So Gamzee, for all that he’s pale for Karkat and friends with Tavros, longs pretty desperately for Rose’s company, because who understands you better than a sister?)

(Meanwhile Rose has known her friends for years and fits in comfortably with them, but still wants to know if Gamzee’s okay. Still yearns to see him again, because he’s her little brother and she misses him dearly.)

So the trolls play through their session (and maybe things go better/differently because of Gamzee being a more active and conciliatory role, idk yet), and then they start trolling the humans.

Rose and Gamzee prove to be pretty helpful on both ends due to their respective knowledge of each others’ species (though Gamzee’s knowledge of humans is larger than Rose’s knowledge of trolls. But Rose articulates her knowledge much better). At some point, it becomes clear to Gamzee that Rose is among the humans his friends have been trolling (he is ecstatic). He trolls her pretty much immediately, and Rose, now knowing that Gamzee is alive and available to talk to, is similarly ecstatic. So they talk, and catch up, and it’s all very happy and cute.

Obviously, this would all culminate in a very lovely reunion when the two groups finally converge, which is the primary reason I wanted to involve the games and dump Gamzee on the other trolls. Because of the desperate missing of one another and then the excitement of being able to talk to one another and then finally the heartstring-tugging reunion. Also Karkat expressing his pale feelings for Gamzee by teaching him Alternian culture and customs.

(And then of course we can still have Gamzee feeling mildly alienated from everyone—he’s still doesn’t easily engage with the trolls who are still alive besides Karkat, still not as immersed in their culture to easily engage with them; Rose’s human friends aren’t his friends, and his appearance and behavior doesn’t quite fit them, either. He’s stuck between the two, a bridge linking them together—but he’s still lonely, still not quite fit for either side until the two sides come together.

But he’s still got his sister, and his moirail, and Gamzee is nothing if not endearing and persistent. He may feel alienated now, but it won’t last forever.)

So yeah, that’s the gist of my thoughts. Sorry to infodump all of this onto you, but I had to share them somehow.

omg anon u dont actually know how much i love aus where like science is involved n shit like that asdiughauidh ( scientists doing experiments, searching for stuff, taking samples etc etc ) also im super invested in this au now lmao

really really good stuff thank u for sharing it with me!!

look at this happy family aww :’)

[stonyiscanon]

socially awkward! peter parker x oblivious shit! reader

read: peter has a heart attack every time he talks to you because you’re too pretty and nice oof

lmfao just experimenting some new head canon//writing styles lmk what you guys think 🥺

it’s essentially a crack fic i have no regrets.

Warnings: an excessive amount of exclamation points used, overload of fluff, it might be little TOO crack-y if that’s even possible for me, a confusing amount of POV switches. ok it’s just shitty writing would you please read it.

Words: 4.8k this be a baby fic

Genre: fluffity fluff, idiots to lovers, high school! reader, god just read the title.

my masterlist is here if you want more shit

talk to me! be my friend please im lonely

 peter first meets you when you’re new to midtown and you get sorted into his science class.

you sat in front of him your very first day and yeah he’s been soft™ for you ever since

like no joke the first time he saw your face he freezed up and choked on his banana

‘oh nO NED!!! she’s PRETTY!!’

‘like, REALLY pretty!!! S H I T’

‘um,,... okay ain’t that a good thing you sit behind her in class!! maybe you can ask for her number or something—‘

oh hohohohoho ned my friend,,

N O

ABSOLUTELY NOT

peter parker has spoken to you a total of twenty-two (22) times within the whole year that you’ve been... acquaintances?? classmates?? ….. friends???

and his fat secret crush on you will STAY A SECRET THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

he’ll die before he asks you out or makes a move because there’s no way in hell peter has a chance with you, the beautiful new girl.

‘i mean, she’s not just beautiful too! she’s so smart, and i know that because i can literally see all her notes from behind her and she gets like, basically all A’s, but she doesn’t even know she’s smart and beautiful?? like, she never raises her hand in class even though i know she knows all th-’

you would think ned would be tired of peter’s ‘shit I’m in LOVE’ rants by now, he’s not because we stan supportive friend ned.

hehe little does he know his big fat secret crush may not be,, totally unrequited

👀

oKAY so maybe you have a humongous tiny crush on the dorky cute guy who sits behind you in science class

WHAT ABOUT IT not like he likes you back anyways.

that one time you asked him for a pencil he looked like he was having an aneurysm!! like okay, are you that hideous or—?

(yeah it totally doesn’t hurt at all that the cute guy you like is repulsed by your presence and seems to ignore you and tense up whenever you’re around)

(t o ta ll y) 🤡

yeah y/n kinda dumb in this because the entire student body knows about peter’s (not so secret lmFAO) crush on you

everyone lOwkEy ships it

ned is president of the petery/n shipper fanclub

that may be because he’s the only member in aforementioned fanclub but you two have many supporters outside the fanclub

ned hypes peter up everytime science class comes around and peter gets kinda confident when he walks in the classroom

‘yeah! i got this!! maybe this time i won’t stare at her hair creepily and then run aw-‘

‘hey peter!’

asjkdjejnxHAUXINENEIAIRJBSJS

ABORT NEVERMIND I DONT GOT THIS ASKXISNNDKSN

peters brain has left the building

and he kinda stares at you for a sec and runs off to his seat at the back

hm, yeah he definitely doesn’t like you

you sigh as you take your seat in front of him, trying to ignore how your love for this dork is completely one sided

the entire class wants to throttle both of you

so then for the sake of the cliche and the plot (did you heart that fourth wall break?? nvm i didn’t hear nothin)

gasp group project time??!?!?!?!

dang who could have saw this coming

totally unexpected

wow

peter is half hoping to get you and half DREADING to

because he knows if he gets you he’ll be able to spend time with you but 300% won’t be able to function and will most certainly fail this project

but i mean who cares about grades.

in a plot twist that literally no one saw coming,,,

‘betty and liz, you’ll be doing yours on atomic structure,

and peter and y/n are partners! you’ll be doing...’

oh nO

you’re partnered up with peter!

i mean this is great news you get to stare at his precious face more but you’re basically forcing him to spend time with someone he doesn’t like!!

so you turn around and you give him an apologetic and (cute as FXCK) small smile

meanwhile, peter combusts

one look at your smile and he just knows he’s completely fucked

like he physically uwus so hard he slams his head on the table

‘oh! are.. you okay? i mean, is working with me really going to be that bad?’

awkward laugh to hide the pain,, quick y/n!!

‘nO!! i mean, no, absolutely not that’s not what i- it wasn’t my- i didn’t m-‘

you smile a little sadly this time and say,

‘don’t worry about it, i know you don’t like me. it’s only two weeks anyway. i promise i won’t take much of your time.’

wait. hold up. back up here. wha-? wHO doesn’t like W HO??

‘wait what do you mea-‘

‘don’t worry about it. wanna meet at the library after school to get a head start on this?’

‘uh, yeah. i mean- cowabunga…!’

wat

shit peter has never wanted to die more in his entire life

so he does what any other normal person would do and yEEts out the classroom full speed

leaving you slightly hurt but mostly just confused

peter strolls in the library casually attempting to strain his neck 360 degrees to look for you

he looks like a chicken and also that’s humanly impossible but leave him be he’s iN LOVE

he spots you on one of the study tables. he takes a deep breath,, and walks over

‘hey!! sorry i’m a little late, uh, something… came up haha’

acting like the poor boy didn’t stand outside the library for fifteen minutes thinking about what he was going to say to you

‘no worries!’ you shoot him another one of those painfully adorable smiles and peter wants nothing more but to give that smile a smooch because damn that is a face that deserves smooches

but he also has a tiny feeling that maybe you might not appreciate it if he randomly kissed you out of nowhere

(you would not mind at all but he doesn’t know that)

‘so yeah! ready to compare the wonders of chemistry and motion physics?’ peter says, bending down to snatch his backpack up to the table (effectively hiding his red cheeks)

you snort as you prop your elbows onto the table, resting your head on your hands.

‘the wonders? hm, i really can’t tell whether you’re being serious or not. guess you really are a dork.’

you giggle a little bit before you catch sight of peter looking like a gaping fish. you immediately slam your hands down, perhaps a little too loudly considering you’re in a library, and blurt out,

‘uh, I was.. joking! making a joke, in case, you know, that wasn’t obvious.’ You awkwardly hide your face between your fingers and squeak out a small apology

‘nO! no, no, don’t worry about it. yeah, I am a dork, so… yeah, i’m not offended, or anything. uh- just, yeah, don’t worry about it.’

well, that ruined the flow of conversation peter was so desperate to keep up with

none of you speak for a bit, opting to look around the very interesting library walls instead, until peter clears his throat and brings up motion physics again

yeah! this will be fine. all you have to focus on is science, and NOT peter’s very soft kissable lips and how good he looks in his light green coloured sweater

huh

oh no

 desperately attempting to clear your mind, you try and focus on what he’s saying instead

it’s just SCIENCE, y/n. focus on the SCIENCE.

this distraction just-concentrate-on-the-work technique works for about the next hour or so as you guys study and work on this project

everything is going great!

you two have an organised google doc full of research and a finished introduction! you’re being extremely productive!

both of you are doing an amazing job at hiding your mutual (except none of you know it’s mutual) attraction!

so as you walk out the library beside peter some time later, you’re smiling softly, because even if your massive crush isn’t reciprocated, you and peter can maybe at least be friends by the end of this, right?

he didn’t even look like he detested you as much as usual today

maybe that’s because he was pretty much forced into cooperating with you because of this project, but you even caught him smiling at you today, so he must be warming up to you

which is great news, of course

peter swallows down his fear and the excessive amount of spit that is coating his tongue and turns to you

‘so, this was really fun’

you tilt your head, mildly horrified at his words

‘we need to stage you an intervention if a science project is something you classify as ‘fun’’

‘no, i mean, the science was kinda boring. spending time with you was really fun. ….right?’

oh good, he isn’t actually a complete monster who does science for fun

(he totally is but you don’t need to know that)

‘yeah! hanging out was really fun, even if we had to spend that time doing work’

you shudder and cringe when you mention ‘work’, because there are much more interesting things you’d rather be doing with peter

👀

‘yep.’

‘yeeep.’

‘so, we should meet up again to work on this… project. right?’ you’re shifting your weight and darting your eyes across the floor, desperately avoiding peter’s gaze.

‘yeah!!’

oof maybe that was a little too enthusiastic. maybe you didn’t notice?

‘i mean, yeah… yeah, totally. sounds… chill.’

oh god that’s worse isn’t it

‘great!’

cue awkward silence

‘so… um… can I maybe have your number?’

you stare blankly at him trying to conceal your excitement because did PETER PARKER just ask for YOUR number?!?!?!

oh no why aren’t you saying anything crapcrapcrap this is peter’s first time asking for ANYONE’S number did he mess up oh no he messed up didn’t he.

‘you know, for the project!!!!! haha!!!!’

oh. of course he wouldn’t actually want your number

*sigh these oblivious fucks I stg i’m the one who’s actually writing this and I want to throttle them*

‘oh… yeah, no problem! um, here’s my number’

‘cool! i’ll text you then!’

from peter p [12:48]

Hey y/n!! Um this is Peter btw. Peter Parker. From science class.

to peter p [12:49]

hey peter!

from peter p [12:49]

So if it’s cool w u do you want to meet up at my place? For the project haha, just figured a change of scenery might be nice. The library can get a little bit boring sometimes.

to peter p [12:49]

yeah sounds cool just send me ur address and i’ll be over after skl tdy if that’s ok

from peter p [12:50]

Yep awesome see u then

to peter p [12:50]

see u! :))

 that smiley face almost makes his heart burst god he’s so whipped for you.

then the panic kicks in.

‘OHMYGOD Y/N Y/L/N IS COMING OVER.’

peter spends like three hours making sure the apartment is SPOTLESS.

spends like half an hour trying to decide whether he should take down all the Star Wars memorabilia down from his walls

like, he doesn’t want you to think he’s a DORK.

(too late peter)

but then ultimately keeps them up, partly because shit you’re coming in like 5 minutes he doesn’t have time for this

but also, you’re a nice person! you surely won’t make fun of him for having a knockoff replica of the death star in his room.

hopefully

oh god if you make fun of him for being a Star Wars nerd he will break down in tears HE HAS TO TAKE THEM DOWN

*ding*

fuck

peter stands up from his spinney chair abruptly and scrambles towards front door.

he spent some time this morning with Aunt May for girl advice and nothing really came out of that except a very traumatizing safe sex talk and some teasing that he will never be able to erase from his memory.

he takes a fast detour and quickly stops in front of the bathroom mirror on his way to open the door, desperately trying to tame the mop of curls and his head.

did I put on deodorant this morning? crap I brushed my teeth right?

*ding*

FUCK

peter stops in front of the door, takes a deep breath and-

‘hey!’ a strangled greeting comes out of his throat but hopefully you don’t notice how nervous he is.

you don’t, because this is oblivious shit!reader

‘hi peter!’

peter is suddenly very aware of how long you have been standing outside.

‘oH! sorry, um come in!!’ he says, opening the door wider and welcoming you in with (overly?) enthusiastic arms.

‘yeah! make yourself at home and everything. you want a drink or something?’

‘water would be nice.’

peter sprints to the kitchen to get you some ICE COLD water in his favourite mug.

peter parker’s apartment is covered with cosy furniture and photos of him and another middle aged woman. half those photos are him and that woman smiling brightly into the camera.

there’s a photo that’s nicely framed above the mantle that shows a young peter beaming in front of a birthday cake, with that same woman and another unknown middle aged man smiling down at him. the photo is clearly old and crumpled, even with the frame around it.

peter looks so happy in that photo…

huh. baby peter is just as adorable as he is now.

you jump away from the photo when you hear his footsteps coming back into the living room. something about the photo seemed emotional, personal. it just didn’t seem like something you should be looking at.

peter comes back clutching two mugs and hands one to you.

‘nice place!’

‘oh, thanks… yeah my Aunt isn’t home right now, she’s downtown meeting some friends, so we have the place to ourselves……’

‘so we can study uninterrupted.’ he says.

oh of course, studying!! yep that’s exactly where your mind went when peter said the apartment was empty aHaH.

peter’s room is a little less adult than the rest of his apartment, flooded with polaroids of him and Ned, with Star Wars posters on the walls.

you ignore the pang of jealousy that you feel when you spot a photo of MJ and peter grinning in front of a bowling alley.

so for the next two hours you two are in peter’s room… studying vigorously.

you would be 100% lying if you said you weren’t disappointed only studying happened.

the weird thing is???

every time you would look down at your textbook to explain something about periodic motion peter seemed to be looking at you when you looked up?

well, looking at you isn’t very weird, looking at someone while they’re talking is just basic manners. but when you looked back he would snap his eyes straight back to his own textbook, nodding and wordlessly agreeing with whatever you had just said.

maybe it’s just your imagination but the way he looked at you, it’s almost a loving, caring gaze.

oh god who are you kidding, it’s just your brain and imagination playing tricks on you.

you’re alone with peter parker in his bedroom!! these things are going to happen!

‘hey you want to take a break? we’ve been going at this for a whole hour now.’ peter says, craning his neck to take a look at the clock on the wall.

‘has it really been a whole hour?’ you lean back in your chair looking up at the ceiling.

‘yeah okay. let’s have a small break then.’

peter picks up both of your mugs and heads off to the kitchen, groaning slightly when he stretches his legs out for the first time in an hour.

*a/n: apologies in advance to those with nut allergies*

he comes back with both your mugs refilled with (water for you, gatorade for peter) and a small bag of almonds for you to snack on.

‘oh hey! almonds are my study snack of choice too!’

‘yeah, i know’ peter says carelessly, scrolling down his phone.

‘i don’t like almonds all that much, but i bought a few packs this morning on the way to school.’

hm,, wHat

‘if… you don’t like almonds why would you get them for me?’

‘because you like almonds.’

blink.

b l i n k

it takes a bit of time for peter to realise what just came out of his mouth.

‘i meAn! I’M NOT A STALKER I SWEAR. i just see you at school sometimes and you always have a small pack of these to snack on whenever you’re doing work so i thought,, you know, since we’re doing WORK, i should buy some for you… so you won’t get hungry!!!’ he’s wailing nonsensical excuses and apologies by now.

huh.

peter parker knows that you snack on almonds when you study, and bought a pack for you even though he doesn’t like them at all.

maybe he doesn’t hate you as much as you thought.

you tear apart the packaging and stuff an almond in your mouth, your traitorous lips slowly threatening to curl into a huge smile.

(despite how much you fight against it, you end up with a slightly demonic looking huge smile on your face, which you attempt to hide by stuffing more almonds in your mouth)

(you now look like a chipmunk)

(but a cute one!!!!)

meanwhile peter is trying to hide the feeling of humiliation by resting his face in his hands, because he literally just exposed himself. he will not be able to take it if he looks back up at your face and you’re laughing at him for this stupid crush.

to his surprise, he does not look up to find you mocking his love for you, but instead, he finds you with a mouth full of almonds, struggling to chew and swallow them all without looking like a disgusting fool.

oh.

that’s kinda cute.

after a good five minutes of you trying to force like 10 almonds down your esophagus,  you clear your throat and awkwardly blurt out a ‘thank you’

‘for the almonds! it’s cute how you bought them for me because you knew how much i like to snack on them while i study. that’s really sweet of you. i guess you really don’t hate me all that much, huh?’ the last sentence comes out teasingly, a playful smile gracing your lips, but instead of uwu-ing over your cute smile, peter’s just confused.

‘why would i hate you?’ he says, his eyebrows laced together in confusion.

‘well, i always kinda got the impression that you didn’t like me… all that much? i never really knew why. hey, why did you hate me so much before this? if i accidentally did something at the start of the year that pissed you off, i’m sorry.’

your playful smile fades a little bit as you see peter basically collapse on himself just due to sheer GRIEVANCE.

‘WHY WOULD YOU THINK I HATED YOU?’ peter yells out, probably annoying the neighbours with how fucking loud he is, but he can’t seem to bring himself to care right now.

‘you… didn’t?’ you say, now becoming just as confused as peter.

he shakes his head aggressively, bringing his fingers up to his temples.

‘but… you always seemed so jumpy around me! and you would never really talk to me, and that one time i asked you for a pencil, you looked like you were dying or something! i always just thought you didn’t like me!’

oh

my

god

peter doesn’t know whether he should be laughing or crying.

‘that’s not because I HATED YOU!! that’s because- i mean- i always thought-’ he’s still yelling and at this point one of the neighbours are definitely going to come knocking to complain, but peter still doesn’t care, because he’s currently having an existential crisis.

ohmygod all this time my CRUSH thought I HATED HER because I couldn’t function like a normal human being in front of her because of how much I liked her until i gave her some ALMONDS what is wrong with me? what kind of entity that controls the universe could hate me so much to pull THIS kind of sick prank on me?

‘wait if you didn’t hate me why would you always act so weird in front of me?’

‘BECAUSE-’ peter tangles his fingers into his hair, and he kicks his chair, sending it halfway across his room from frustration.

‘how could you possibly think I hated you??? how could you possibly think ANYONE could hate you??? you’re single handedly the only good person in this godforsaken school full of IDIOTS and BULLIES! nobody could ever hate you, y/n, and certainly not ME!’

perhaps he is using an excessive amount of hand gestures, but it gets his point across.

‘wha-? what do yo-?’

‘wHat are you TALKING ABOUT?’ you say, slowly turning just as frustrated as peter.

‘if there’s ANYONE that’s decent in this ‘godforsaken school full of idiots’ it would be YOU, peter parker!! nobody would just pay attention to what I EAT so I wouldn’t get HUNGRY during a study session oKaY!! you’re so CONFUSING! every time I accept the fact that you don’t like me back you pull this bullshit, essentially making me rethink ALL MY FEELINGS!’ you say, going through the room (stepping over the toppled chair), just to jab a finger onto peter’s chest.

suddenly both of you are aware of your flushed cheeks and your close proximity.

‘wha- WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?’ peter basically shrieks, and you would not be surprised if all of New York managed to hear that scream.

your cheeks darken as you awkwardly step back from him, realising that you accidentally outed yourself.

‘um- i mean,’ you stumble on the fallen chair as you desperately walk backwards with your hands behind your back to avoid peter’s piercing gaze.

*you’re not good at confrontation okay*

‘you like me?? wait wait, you like ME?’ you frown a little as you look at peter’s incredulous expression.

‘well yeah, you don’t have to rub it in like that, I know you don’t like me back.’ You mumble, looking away.

‘don’t like yo- OH MY GOD!’

this time peter stalks all the way across the room, looking you dead straight in the eye.

‘you better not be joking with me, y/n.’

you squeak out a small ‘no’ or something like that because you can’t really focus with peter looking down at you like that.

‘you mean to tell me, my stupid fat, nervous crush on you was mistaken for HATRED, and all this time I’ve been thinking I have no chance with you, but you’ve been crushing on me too all this time?’ his words come out jumbled, and a little fast, but you can decipher the general meaning.

peter parker likes you… too.

oh GOD WAT

he clears his throat, biting his lip and you can just tell he’s about to apologise, because peter’s a complete angel who probably doesn’t want you feeling uncomfortable.

‘um- uh, y- oomph!’

and in this shocking turn of events, you execute the only spontaneous thing you’ve ever done in your life and pray that it ends up well.

you lean forward and press your lips to peter’s, hoping to whatever superior being there is that this was a good decision.

spoiler alert: it was

peter.exe has shut down because all of a sudden your lips are against his and oh wow this is so much better than all those times he’s imagined it happening because it’s actually happening now.

your hands find their way to peter’s curls that he was trying so hard to get under control an hour ago but now he can’t remember why he doesn’t like his hair if it’s just going to be tugged on by you like this from now on.

he grabs you by the waist and pulls you closer to him, pretty much pressing his body against yours.

not that you’re complaining.

and god if peter died from suffocation right now that would be a heavenly way to go, and he would be a-ok with dying if it meant finally being in your arms.

you pull away from peter, both of you slightly panting before you burst out in giggles, resting your head and letting it fall on peter’s shoulder.

‘oh my god, we’re such idiots, aren’t we?’

peter hums in agreement before lifting your chin up to kiss you again.

 bonus: boyfriend! peter

definitely still stares at you in science class except now whenever you catch him staring he just shoots you a lazy grin

because yEa he has FULL RIGHTS to stare at you now because you’re his GIRLFRIEND.

you find out he’s spiderman pretty much immediately let’s be real this boy is not the best at hiding secrets

especially from his GIRLFRIENDS whomst he loves VERY MUCH.

this boy also gives you anxiety attacks whenever you see spiderman on the news saving people, getting hurt and shit, but he understands.

sends you a text before and after he gets in the suit whenever he can.

most certainly uses his spidey-powers for things they were not intended to be used for.

to visit his girlfriend so she can give him cuddles at any time why what were you guys thinking about hMmmMMMmmmM?

likes to show you off but also gets very blushy and shy about PDA

pretty much had a seizure the first time you held hands.

ned almost fainted when he heard the news (aka peter rushed to call him the second you left that night you kissed because these bitches are very gossipy)

peter parker is the ultimate clingy boyfriend.

……

and you love it.

your science teacher no longer puts you in the same group or partners you guys up now though.

because now you can’t study together, you literally can’t keep your hands off each other.

sometimes when peter is feeling ~particularly clingy he just nuzzles into the crook of your neck during lunch, and pulls you to him so you’re pretty much on his lap.

and MJ is just like yall r disgusTING

right in front of my salad.

in conclusion, peter parker loves you and you love him.

it’s honestly kind of sickening,

but you love that too.

[twitchesandstitches]

Aradia’s Playful Ghost Rampage

It was that time of year again, the very favorite-est season of Aradia Megido, Burgundy Goddess of Death and Secrets, and a prime time for giving mortals a healthy bit of a fright.

Even in the distant eons as a mortal herself, before she and her friends had ascended to divinity and reshaped the cosmos into a more pleasing design, she had loved the fall. Small wonder that when they had worked into localized religious variants of their creations to make holidays that pleased them, Aradia had chosen to invest into many cultures a sense of liminal time for the fall; an idea that it was when the lands of the dead and the living touched again. And others just found that time of year kind of ominous, which suited her fine!

Aradia had something of a tradition. Every year, on this time, if there was nothing else for her to occupy herself with, she would descend to the mortal world with as little power as she could use in order to actually fit near them, and give them the best scare she could!

Sometimes, the others joined her, but not this year. At least, not yet. Aradia left the halls of the gods, knowing that Terezi Pyrope, the top goddess and leader of them all, was giving her a grin and totally having Karkat watch the proceedings. That just encouraged Aradia to smile, and decide to put on the best show she could, off the top of her head.

She seemed to disappear to them. She simply willed herself to dissipate into the multiverse, and focus her essence to her target: a city on a nice little world in one of the less excitable universes, in an mild cross-section of the multiverse. At least, the bits of it suitable for mortal life! She had a hard time going to the immortal realms, owing to her connection to death and time (which were not things that most immortals really understood or experienced) but she would get there eventually and surprise them good. And perhaps seek out all their interesting secrets. But that was for another time.

Universes rippled and politely shifted away as Aradia descended from the divine plane that she and the other divinities occupied when not incarnated on the mortal realm somewhere. She was pretty good at working out how to keep her divine power without having to incubate it as a regular mortal for a few dozen years or so, but with her etheric mass as big as a couple universes, there was a lot of Aradia to push on down.

She compromised, leaving the vast majority of her power behind, to draw her back when she had her fun. It was so tiring to do that she almost free fell, out of control, with most of her just flying away.

Oh no, I lost too much! She realized as she became minuscule, shrinking away to a tiny microscopic fraction of her true glory. She was dwindling,, becoming so tiny, so… helpless… She tried to muster her courage, and not think about it too much. It would only be for a short while, of course! That made her feel a bit better, and it helped to suddenly be oriented properly by her arrival in the world.

She estimated herself to be at less than five percent of her usual power. The shrunk down, hands off version of her she became in the mortal world, anyway; she’d never been this tiny, not since before she ascended to godhood. She scowled, not liking this massive reduction; still, it was only for a short time. She put a lot of effort into these pranks, after all. Still… Vriska would tease her about it, she knew it, and she’d have to make her pay somehow.

Even down to a tiny fraction of her power, her mere presence did things to the world. A wave of ghostly pressure raced out, making leaves fall and grass move without wind, windows rattle and doors open and close all on their own. It set up, in every part of this world, a perfect spooky ambience!

Aradia didn’t do that deliberately but she certainly didn’t mind. And she might have claimed otherwise later on.

Upon the little world she chose to mess with, here and now, the epicenter of her shockwave as she entered local reality came from a city, ordinary in all respects, and they soon found their view of the sky blocked. Far above them, the sky darkened, and for a moment they wondered if clouds had twisted up to block out the sun. It grew darker still, taking on solid form, and they saw something vast, too big to be properly seen. A vast curvature, rising from somewhere just out of view, looming high over everything, something massive and blunt extending over and pointing right down at them.

Translucency faded away. What seemed to them a vast pillar became solid and moved, rising up… up. Moving with a terrible ponderousness, as inevitable as the movement of continents, and the people below saw the vastness behind it, the same deep dark color of an adult troll’s skin, and there were more pillars behind it, folded up organically, and as it moved above them, they realized, with a shock, that it was a massive hand.

And with a marvelous sense of drama, there came the rest of Aradia Megido.

Her face appeared before them, looking as large as the moon; for all they knew, it might have been bigger. (It wasn’t, not now.) Broad and cute and beautifully alien. Her massive, brown-red lips were quirked into an impish smile, and beside her vast cloud of hair and the imposingly huge spiked ram-horns curling behind her head, they could make out nothing else. They could barely see her at all; she was so large that they were but barely perceptible specks to her, and only her divine senses permitted her to make them out at all.

The whole city stopped, and for miles around, entire countries halted too, and to a soul every single person gaped at the terrifying scale of the troll goddess descending upon them.

Aradia said nothing, just smirking. She waggled her finger teasingly, floating above the ground and slowly lowering her hand just like a mean child about to do something awful to an anthill. And as she lowered her hand, everyone had a sobering thought mingled with sudden horror; they were the ant.

Aradia let them hold that thought, savoring the tension rising up below her. She let it build, and build, just like a balloon floating up.

Yes. That’s it. ...Here I come.

Once again, her finger waved above the city, and then she thrust it down the vast hoof-like nail extending from it as broad across as the entire city. There should have been a vast dust cloud as her hand struck, sinking down and into the earth, and nothing could have withstood the impact of something so massive and so strong.

Below her, everything was complete chaos; cars ran desperately, people fled in terror, many people built up pillow forts in their fear and hid beneath the blankets, and the finger deliberately lowered, into the city, down to her knuckle-

By this point, miles of pitch-dark flesh moving through buildings and people without so much as disturbing a mote of dust. She was phasing through the concrete and steel and plastic compounds, and all the living things within, seemingly as immaterial as the air.

Over the course of a few minutes, people slowed. They stopped running, came to a stop and looked at once another with mounting expressions of embarrassment, mortification and even glowering anger. Cars stopped, people climbing out and poking at her hand and staring when they just moved through it. Even some bugs did that very thing, flying about and trying to avoid the teasing wall.

“GOTCHA!” Aradia boomed, drawing her hand back. In an instant, she moved away from the city, floating back, back, going high up into the air. She giggled again, far away that they could make her out. A broad burgandyblood troll woman floating up, her belly heavy and helping to support breasts massive even for notoriously buxom trolls, her hips wider even than her shoulders and her backside projecting out like a very impressive shelf. Thick seemed a poor word to describe her.

She grinned again, making finger guns at the city. “I got you good,” she said, winking to show no harm meant, and she flew away into the Earth, to find another city to mess with.

This time, she was gonna pretend to boob slam them. And then maybe the next one, she’d pretend she was going to swallow the whole city whole!

She giggled, just thinking about it. Distantly, Aradia’s friends watched her through divine perceptions, and there was a gloomy scowl from Karkat Vantas, the Red God of Bonds and Friendship. “Do you think we should… I don’t know, get her to quit that?”

Terezi Pyrope, the true goddess in charge of the new cosmology, Teal Goddess of Justice and Motherhood (as her extremely gravid frame made very clear), placed a claw to her lips. She grinned fiendishly. “I say we join her!”

“Yeah, okay, good ol’ mortal freak out. I’ll get the googly eye masks.”

“Sweet! ...Those are scary, right?”

“Fuck if I know, probably.”

“Sweet.”

[firstpuffin]

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake

-Note: It’s kind of embarrassing to admit but my comments around the visuals of A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening are straight-up incorrect. The two games did not share the same visual style and I honestly don’t know why I said that; I most definitely knew better. Still, I’m not going to get rid of it because the internet needs more examples of people admitting to be being wrong.

I say a lot that I want to be positive, but it’s really gonna be hard with this one. See, at the latest Nintendo Direct it was announced that they would be releasing a remake of the 26 year old game, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As it happens I was already considering writing something about this game in a “Games from my Childhood” article, but that would actually have been positive! This one is… well, I’m going to at least try and balance every negative with a positive.

-at least the title screen looks good-

  So where to begin: I won’t cover the story because spoilers but how about some personal background? The game came out a year before I did (ha! bad jokes) and I have no idea when I got my grubby little paws on it, but it was a part of my life genuinely for as long as I can remember, along with the Pokémon games. I never completed it as a child, but my memories of it were so good that I returned to it as an adult and completed it, learning its sad secret.

-hey! according to this it released the same year I did; me getting my years mixed up I guess-

  Link’s Awakening (LA) was originally a pet project made outside of work hours which is why it borrows resources from other games such as the Mario series, but it was eventually released to critical acclaim. The gameplay is much the same as its immediate predecessor A Link to the Past (LttP), but with a number of new items and a unique soundtrack. Visually it is much the same as well, although its original release was black and white for the GameBoy with Link’s Awakening DX adding colour for the GameBoy Colour.

  So let’s start with the visuals as that is most of what we have right now: the original shared its visuals with LttP what with them using the same assets (tools, resources etc) and LttP had a sequel recently that looked really nice. But the upcoming LA remake looks nothing like it; I wouldn’t expect it to but when a defence of the artistic choice is that “it’s an update of the original graphics” (so why not use the assets from the LttP remake?) or that it somehow “reflects the atmosphere of the original” except there’s no reason for it to be any different to, again, the LttP remake. And in response to the “atmosphere”, LA was one of the darker yet in some ways more whimsical games; this new style is childish to the extreme.

  Don’t get me wrong, I love something that is good and childish, but there is a level when it stops being great and starts to feel like they condescend to the player. Bright colours, simple faces, high pitched noises- Oh god the noises!! I’ll expand on the sounds later but I’m still on the visuals. I’ve heard the game described as looking like Claymation, which isn’t wrong, but my immediate thought was that it looked like cheap plastic. And after watching it again and again as I discussed it with a friend, this opinion stuck.

-tell me this doesn’t look like claymation; this isn’t a game, it’s an animated short film-

  You know how shiny and tacky cheap plastic usually looks? Imagine an entire game like that; an entire world like that. Fans of anime may understand what I say next, but there is a large element of “chibi” in this new game. Large head, tiny body. It’s often seen in short 4 minute spin offs of popular series.

-as you can see, chibi is hardly meant to be taken seriously-

-just to hammer things home-

  So shiny plastic, silly chibi art with a soulless expression. Oh yeah, that. Link’s eyes have zero soul behind them. Zero. He’s a freakin’ monster. Have you seen those Funko Pops? You know how empty they look? Some have said it somehow reflects the original game’s art again, but back then they didn’t have the technology to make him look soulless and young me always thought he looked determined; it was really cool.

-determined; dead inside-

Okay, so I said I would try and be fair, and I have shat upon the plasticine toy-box long enough, so here’s what is good visually. The areas are actually really nice. 

Ignoring the nail varnish sheen on everything, things are really detailed. There is an unfortunate trend in games, likely due to technical limitations, to have flat textures. Basically, imagine the difference between a tile or wood panel floor, and a picture of a tile or wood panel floor. But this game looks to have really tried in these areas. The grass looks thick and lush, tiles look like more than a photograph on the floor and even the flat flowers on the ground look decent. Just a shame it all looks like LEGO. Actually, a LEGO Zelda game would be awesome. But this is not that.

  I haven’t explained that very well, it’s an area that I am new at but I will say that clearly a lot of care has gone into the assets and the world. It is not a lazy game in any way.

-don’t tell me those trees and rocks and- well, everything, don’t look like LEGO-

Next I’m going to talk about the sound. First of all, I’m convinced that they have artificially increased the pitch of Link’s voice so it is painfully sharp to the ears. I’ll admit, I have an unusual sensitivity to lights and sound and thus I prefer darker colours and quieter sounds; I avoid clubs like the plague and not just because I’ll likely catch it there. So maybe, just maybe, I’m noticing something that won’t be a problem for most, and is just unfortunate for me. And let’s ignore that it doesn’t match the darker tone of the game.

  And the music? Also quite high pitched. And super cheery. It doesn’t have either the dreamlike or dark tones that could be expected (and just thinking of how it could be dreamlike gives me shivers; it could be so good) but is instead inanely cheery. In fact, I hope they sped everything up for the trailer and the pitch is just an unfortunate side-effect.

  On the plus side, the trailer opens with a cool cinematic and I swear the music changes from a nice, cheerful rendition (I don’t dislike cheerful in-and-of-itself) of the Zelda main theme to the death squeals of various instruments that I mentioned before. On top of that, it ends on a really nice vocal version of the LA theme, Ballad of the Wind Fish. If the trailer had been the cinematic and that closing song alone then I would be beyond excited about the remake. Thank heaven it wasn’t, I’m not sure my love of the series could survive such a plummeting disappointment.

-and here’s the actual trailer for your perusal- 

So I’ll finish here. I was originally very pleased, excited even that they had decided to remake what was a favourite, underrated and apparently forgotten game, but I kept my expectations low because I knew what to expect from these companies. I thought I did anyway. I was still disappointed. I thought I had prepared for the worst. Still, at least it gave me something to write about.

  But, the game has clearly had a lot of work put into it and gameplay-wise it actually looks to flow really well so I’m sure it controls like a treat. But the visuals and music are too big of a deal for me to let slide; if it keeps up like this then it could literally be painful for me to play. Still, games do change a lot from the initial trailer to its release and I even put forth an idea of why the sound may hurt me so much here. Maybe the final game will be a lot better. Unfortunately, the things I want to be done in games and such rarely are, and I am often alone in my complaints.

And finally, yes I am aware that the famous and incredibly popular Wind Waker entry in the series also had similar complaints and became, as I said, incredibly popular. I wasn’t a part of that crowd, I was too young and honestly, Link’s Awakening was the only Zelda game I had actually played at that time. 

[leaves-of-three]

How do you write Connor so well? Could you share some writing tips?

That’s really sweet of you to say. Honestly, it’s just me trying to pick up on every little thing we actually know about Connor and filling in my own interpretations of what they mean. We really don’t know that much about Connor. He’s only in the beginning of the play then throughout you get little snippets of his life from other characters…but it’s not that much to go off of. Even then, it’s how they saw him which can we a warped version of what he actually was. When I’m writing him, I try not to focus on Evan’s Connor because he’s only a projection of Evan’s own self. It’s important to remember that he’s not Connor. He’s Evan. That’s Evan’s mind talking to him using Connor’s face but it’s not Connor himself. He’s not a ghost coming back to talk to this random kid he’s interacted with once or twice. He’s 100% Evan’s mind projecting.

So then you have to focus on what you actually know about him. I’m gonna dissect it because I literally love analyzing characters it’s my favorite thing in the entire world. You didn’t ask for this but I’m doing it anyway yolo (im sorry).

The first time we meet Connor is at the breakfast scene. What do we know about that scene?:

Connor doesn’t want to go to school.

It is the very first day of his senior year. Not many people skip the very first day of school. It’s supposed to be a fairly easy, chill, exciting day to most people. Getting to know your teachers, seeing friends, catching up with people, not much work etc. I’m going off of my own school experience to analyze this bit: Skipping/Not wanting to go/Having anxiety over going doesn’t mean you’re lazy and don’t like work. It generally means that you feel uncomfortable, anxious, lonely, scared about having to navigate the world of school and your peers. Connor doesn’t have friends. Going to school, sitting in class, doing group projects, eating lunch, doing anything in school alone and without friends is fucking hard. It’s awful.  It’s not a surprise he doesn’t want to go.

Connor is high.

Judging from typical school days, it’s probably somewhere between 6 - 7 in the morning. That’s early. That’s someone who wakes up and immediate gets high. AND it’s the first day of school. That’s someone who needs something to help them cope just to get through the day. He needs something to help him take the edge off of life because doing it without anything is a daunting thought.

Cynthia also says “I don’t want you going to school high Connor. We’ve talked about this.” Which implies that this a fairly regular thing for him.

Connor reacts negatively when Zoe speaks but ignores Larry.  

Okay so I love this bit because my psychology loving self adores this kind of shit. It’s amazing and beautifully done and asdlhfal;ksd

After Cynthia tries to get Larry involved with making sure Connor goes to school. Larry says, “What do you want me to do? He doesn’t listen. Look at him. He’s probably high.” Connor stays quiet. Then Zoe confirms Larry’s statement and says, “He’s definitely high.” And Connor responds with a “Fuck you!”

Every time Larry speaks Connor stays quiet. His body language in the scene involves Connor resting his arm on the side of his head and, by doing so, is putting some sort of physical barrier between his facial expressions and his dad sitting next to him.

If I recall correctly, I don’t think Connor ever once actually speaks to his dad??? Larry talks at him but Connor never responds. No words are ever spoken from him to Larry. (I think, I could be wrong)

SO the point here is that Connor doesn’t say shit when Larry is nagging at him but the second Zoe opens her mouth to do the same he immediately responds with a big “fuck you” and puts his head down on the table.

The way I analyze that scene is that the fuck you was really meant for Larry, that he was pissed off at his father, but he took it out on Zoe. He redirected his anger onto his sister because it’s a lot easier to take advantage of a younger sibling then the head of your household.

Judging from how Zoe speaks about him later in the play, he probably redirected a lot of his anger onto her and it really messed her up.

Him not speaking up to Larry could also mean that Connor is potentially afraid of him?

The second time we see Connor is at school with Jared and Evan:

Connor cares what people think about him and he’s bullied. 

Jared says, “Hey Connor. Loving the new hair length. Very school shooter chic.” Connor responds by staring at him with this perplexed look of wtf dude seriously. He was just nagged at home, forced to go to school when he’s clearly uncomfortable about doing that, and then he gets there only to be antagonized by Jared who pretty much refers to him as someone who slaughters innocent people.

His ‘wtf dude’ look is totally justified in my opinion.  

Jared then says that he was just kidding and that it was a joke. To which Connor replies with “Yeah no it was funny. I’m laughing can’t you tell.” His tone starts out light and sarcastic. When Jared doesn’t respond, he steps closer to him and voice raises. “Am I not laughing hard enough for you?” He’s clearly offended by what Jared said.

Jared calls him a freak and walks away.

He gets bullied by Jared so he turns around and becomes the bully to Evan.

Like he did with Zoe, Connor redirects his pain onto people he know won’t fight back or who he views as weaker than him.

Evan nervous laughs when he’s left alone with Connor. Connor can probably see that Evan is scared of him and uses that to his advantage. He says the whole, “What the fuck are you laughing at? Stop fucking laughing at me?”” Stop laughing at me. Not laughing at what Jared said. But specifically laughing at Connor himself. Connor doesn’t want people laughing at him because he cares what they think about him. “You think I’m the freak? I’m not the freak. You’re the fucking freak.” He yells at Evan and pushes him to the ground.

People have all obviously analyzed all these scenes before. I’m not close to the first one to say it, but obviously, these are words he wishes he could say to Jared and Evan is the surrogate for his rage.

And finally we have the very last scene that Connor is in which is the computer lab scene:

Connor is apologetic after he loses his temper.

He sees Evan, who has clearly been crying. I think it’s unknown how long Connor was actually in the room with him/if he overheard the phone call with Evan’s mom. I’m assuming that Evan wasn’t actually speaking out loud when he was writing his letter, that it was more for the audience to know what he was writing. So if Connor had been in the room and listening, he could have heard Evan’s side of the phone call and seen him quietly crying on his laptop while writing something then print it out. Since he was near the printer, he took the paper to give to him. He didn’t have to do that. He wanted to.

I think he wanted an excuse to talk to Evan again after he pushed him. He probably felt bad. I feel like he views Evan as someone who’s harmless and unintimidating, which is why it was easy for him to channel his anger onto, but then he started to regret that choice, so he tried to reach out.

He never actually apologizes with words and instead tries to do it through actions. I bet you that Larry does the exact same thing too but Connor probably never realized or picked up on it. (I could do a full character study on Larry too omg he’s a great specimen to take apart and a fantastically flawed character like everyone else in the show its beautiful fuck)

He’s got a dark sense of humor.

When finding out Evan broke his arm from falling out of a tree, he replies with a “That’s the saddest fucking thing I ever heard.” But he doesn’t say it in a mean way. He smiles and laughs under his breath.

HE WAS TELLING A JOKE. He was trying his best to be nice to Evan and lightly joke around with him but I doubt they have similar styles of humor. I think it’s the only time Connor actually genuinely smiles too??

And Evan doesn’t really laugh. It’s more of a nervous “plz don’t hurt me again ur a lil scary” kinda laugh. So Connor backs off and changes the subject.

He’s observant.

He notices that no one signed Evan’s cast. 

He noticed that Evan has no friends hence the “now we can both pretend we have friends” line. 

He noticed Evan’s sad and alone so he’s making an effort to be nice to him. 

He noticed that he printed a piece of paper and that it would be a good ice breaker. 

He’s quiet and he notices things. It’s subtle but it’s there. I bet you Connor secretly knows everything about everyone. 

The boy just wants a damn friend. 

He’s lonely. Evan’s clearly lonely. Why not try to befriend him?

He’s signs his cast super big so it takes up the whole arm. For one, it gets a laugh out of the audience. But two, he kinda knows that no one else will sign it so he makes his name extra big so everyone will see and know that both of them aren’t alone/friendless.

This is also interesting to me because I wonder if Connor knew he was going to kill himself then. Often times suicide is something people plan out ahead of time. I wonder if he knew what he was going to do and I wonder if writing that on Evan’s arm was a secret way for him to leave something semi permanent behind. A way to be sure that someone would remember him when he’s gone. If that’s the case then that was some powerful shit to slip in and it hurts my soul.

He’s angry and paranoid and suicidal.

So obviously Connor reads Evan note to himself, thinks it’s about him, freaks out and leaves. That’s the last time we see Connor.

I’ve looked at this scene in a few different ways. The first way I see it is that Connor could of had symptoms of paranoia. He sees his sister’s name and his first thought is that Evan did this in a malicious manor. He views people as out to get him. It doesn’t take much to set him off. He’s got a lot of anger inside of him that he doesn’t know how to release in a healthy way so it ends up with him blowing up over the slightest little bumps in the road.

The second way I view it is a little different. If I’m thinking about my point before (about him already having plans to kill himself) then I wonder if he was just using the paper as an excuse to get angry and leave. He had already made his mark using Evan’s cast. His name was there. He technically didn’t need Evan anymore. Thus he “freaks out” over this paper and it helps fuel his desires to end his own life. As someone who has been suicidal in the past, I understand wanting to find every excuse you can to help end things, to justify what you’re doing, and to push people away. It’s a super fucked up way of thinking but, when you put yourself into that mindset, I don’t think it’s that crazy of an idea.

“Is this about my sister? You wrote this because you knew I’d find it.” (Hinting at the paranoia point) “Yeah you, uh, saw that I was the only other person in the computer lab.” (Mentally trying to convince himself to believe that Evan did this on purpose, even though it goes against everything he already knows about Evan) “So I could read some creepy shit you wrote about my sister and freak out, right?” (here comes the anger) “Then you could tell everybody that I’m crazy! Right?! Fuck you!” (cue the storm off)

And then we hear from Evan that Connor hasn’t been in school for three days.

And eventually we find out why.

From everything that Connor, himself, has told us he’s deeply hurting. He’s quiet. Observant. He’s got many unchecked mental health issues. He doesn’t feel heard. He’s lonely. He uses coping methods to get by. He has little to no self worth. He carries around a lot of guilt. He acts out on people he know won’t fight him back. Probably because he needs to feel superior because everywhere else in his life he feels stepped on. He is both a bully and bullied. He had little regard for strong authority aka Larry. He craves personal connections but doesn’t know how to obtain them or keep them. He’s broken. So that’s how I try my best to write him.

THEN we have what everyone else tells us about Connor. This should all be taken with a grain of salt because everyone views people differently but their words shouldn’t be totally disregarded either. (Yes I’m going to go on longer even though you never asked for this I’M SORRY I CAN’T STOP NOW) So let’s see what little Connor character traits we can find out from other people that could be potentially used for writing him in the future.

The scene during For Forever tells a lot of about Connor through his family:

Zoe: Connor wasn’t very nice so that makes sense.

Cynthia: Connor was…a complicated person.

Zoe: No. Connor was a bad person. There’s a difference.

In response to finding out Connor pushed Evan. Zoe is shown to have no sympathy for her brother’s actions while Cynthia continues to make excuses for him. I see that as Connor having no mercy on his sister but probably playing his mom to his advantage with what he knew he could get away with.  

Cynthia: Did Connor tell you about the Harris’? We used to go skiing together, our families.

Zoe: Connor hated skiing.

Not a sports, activity kinda guy. Doesn’t like things involving social gatherings. Not friendly.

Larry: Somebody had to be the bad guy.

In response to reading Connor’s emails. This one is a little iffy in regards to Connor’s character. It’s more a Larry thing. Because I don’t know if Connor was actually aware that his emails were read or not but either way it shows that he was completely not trusted by his family. Also that pointing out again that Cynthia was probably a push over when it came to Connor and he knew that.

Cynthia: We used to go to the orchard all the time. We;d do picnics there. Remember that Zoe?

Zoe: Yeah I do.

Cynthia: You and Connor had that little toy plane that you would fly. [to Larry, with sad laughter] Until you flew it into the creek.

Larry: No that was an emergency landing.

This is big. Things weren’t always hell in the Murphy house. There were good memories. Sadly though good memories are often overshadowed by the bad ones. Connor seemed to cast a huge shadow over this family. But it is important to note that Connor and Zoe used to play together as children. Things. Aren’t. Always. Awful. Connor wasn’t a reckless beast. He can be written to be playful and funny and sarcastic and sweet. Just balance it out with the angst. People are complicated and have tons of depth so try to write them that way if you can.

Other things said at random points throughout the play…

Jared:

“Connor Murphy is batshit out of his mind. Remember when he threw a printer at Mrs. G in second grade because he didn’t get to be the line leader that day? 

Connor has had anger issues since he was a child too.

Alana: 

“Still can’t believe the terrible news about @ connormurphy. I wouldn’t say that we were friends exactly. More like acquaintances. We were in chemistry together. I’m pretty sure. Also he was in my English class in 10th grade. Almost positive. Yeah he was definitely in my English class. Three days ago Connor Murphy was here and now hes gone. If Connor meant something to you please retweet or private message me if you just wanna talk. At time like thees we could all use a friend.”

Honestly, this says way more about Alana’s character but it still mentions Connor so I’m adding it.

But what I do get from this was the Connor has/had a twitter (or some form of social media, but I’m assuming twitter since the “retweet” bit) and Alana followed him on it?

“He was one of my closest acquaintances. He was my lab partner in Chemistry and we presented on Huck Fin together in 10th grade. He was so funny. Instead of calling it, well, Huck Fin…[fades off]. Nobody else in our class thought of that.”

Again, speaks more to Alana’s character than Connors. But I also wonder if this is actually true or if she made this up in a similar fashion to Evan in order to put herself in the story…since she didn’t even recall if he was in those classes or not earlier.

BUT assuming that this was true, Connor doesn’t seem to care much for school. Or he could have been trying to make jokes in order to gain friends. If he worked with Alana on projects, her personality would have steam rolled over his. I think she would be the type of person he would sit back and let take control and tell him what to do then just go along with it.

Zoe: 

“Just because Connor isn’t here, trying to punch through my door, screaming that he’s going to kill me for no reason, that doesn’t mean that all of a sudden we’re the fucking Brady Bunch.” 

I mean…yikes.

“After all you put me through. Don’t say it wasn’t true. That you were not the monster that I knew”

 This shit just breaks my damn heart. You are not the monster that I knew is one of my favorite lines in the entire play. In Zoe’s story, Connor is the villain. He hurt her. He abused her. And no one did anything about it to protect her or stop him. I haven’t really had a chance to write too much of Zoe into my writings yet but I know that if/when I do, Connor is not going to be a kind character to her.

Larry: 

“We didn’t think Connor had any friends.” 

All they found with Connor was Evan’s letter. I wonder how many times he reread it, if at all, before he died. Do you think he calmed down and looked at it again through a different light? This time maybe seeing how depressed and unhappy Evan was too? I wonder if he found comfort in that at all and that’s why it was still in his pocket. Of course that’s purely speculation on my part. He could have just shoved it in there and forgot it was there. That’s the beautiful thing about this play, there’s a lot that the viewer can piece together and take away on their own. Things are never fed to you. They present them simply and let you take what you need from it.

Anyway, yeah, Connor had no friends. That point was already kinda clear though.

“I gave you the world. You threw it away.” 

Connor grew up in a well off family. They were rich. He literally could of had anything he wanted but he didn’t. I take that as Connor not giving a shit about material items. He probably has little regard for things. You could write that as him throwing and breaking near by items if he’s mad or simply tossing things around and not caring abobut them. Whereas someone who grew up poor, would be more likely to take care of their things because they know they can’t just get more.

“I didn’t realize Connor meant this much to people.” 

In his father’s eyes, Connor didn’t mean very much. He was probably able to pick up on that and it would affect his attitude and behavior to other people. If he felt he didn’t mean much to his own father, then why would he ever be special to anyone else?

“He left it in the bag with the tags still on.”

Larry’s weak attempt at reaching out to his son with a baseball glove. It was probably obvious to everyone that Connor was not a sports person. He probably hated baseball. But Larry likes it so he tried to force his hobbies onto Connor. It was received by Connor not even opening the gift. From Connor’s perspective, he could have taken that as a ‘wow my father knows literally nothing about me wtf’ where as Larry would have viewed that differently but this is not about Larry asd;kfja

“Your dad must feel pretty lucky to have a son like you.” 

Another great line in this play! It hurts my soul. Connor is a disappointment to his father. Larry wished Connor could have been something more than he was. Once again, this shit would weigh on Connor’s mind and fuck him up.

Cynthia: 

“I don’t remember the last time I heard him laugh.” 

That shit is dark yo. Connor doesn’t laugh around his family. He’s unhappy there.

“Connor didn’t get invited to any bar mitzvahs” [paraphrasing that quote]

Cynthia always had hope for Connor. I like to imagine Connor not being as nasty to his mother than everyone in the family. She really loved him and I hope he could feel that deep down.

And, of course, Evan: 

“Over the summer I found this yearbook thing that our class made in 8th grade. Most people did collages of their friends. But Connor’s was a list of his ten favorite books.”

One of my favorite bits I like to write into stories is that Connor liked to read. For a middle school kid to have ten favorite books, and care enough about them to put them into a yearbook, is kinda of special. Books are methods of escapism to many people and I like to think Connor is included in that group. 

OKAY IM GOING TO STOP THIS IS SO LONG I AM SO SORRY THIS WAS NOT THE RESPONSE YOU WERE LOOKING FOR I WROTE YOU A DUMB CHARACTER STUDY INSTEAD. THIS IS ALL HOW I SEE CONNOR SO IT’S HOW I TRY TO WRITE HIM YOU COULD SEE HIM SUPER DIFFERENTLY AND WRITE HIM DIFFERENTLY THATS WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT WRITING

[starsfadingbutilingeron]

wip meme

rules of the meme: list all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. this can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.

i was tagged by @ghoststrawberries thanks babe💕

okay im gonna put this under a read more b/c i feel it will get long and also. yeah. that’s just what i’m gonna do. 

i tag @thefireinthewire @celty-sturluson @mer-birdman and uhm anyone else who wants to do this!! if u want to be like. officially tagged just pm me and i’ll slap ya on here!!

p.s. if any of the fics sound interesting y’all should tell me/subscribe to my ao3  p.p.s if you like any of my writing (esp my original stuff) pls tell me it makes me feel good :^)

okay let’s see what i can dig up.

well, the first wip that came up in my docs is a bnha oneshot in which kirishima finally loses his patience w/ bakugou and it’s only in outline form rn so i’ll just leave u with this from the doc:

alrigh t next we have. my super self-indulgent pride and prejudice tododeku au and uh. haha. i have a few snippets written but i’ll just tantalize u guys with this little blurb from The Scene (p&p fans will know): 

“I love you,” Shouto said, hurried and all at once. It was the most unrefined delivery Izuku had ever heard slip from the imposing gentleman’s mouth, so much so that it gave Izuku cause to lift his gaze to Shouto’s.

 He found the other man’s face white as a sheet, as if Shouto could scarcely believe what he’d said himself. Izuku fumbled for something to say in reply, denoting that Shouto was waiting for him to speak next before continuing his own declaration.

 Izuku drummed his thumb in time against the hammering of his heart, wanting nothing more than to tear his eyes from Shouto’s, but finding the task impossible. “You...love me?”

then i’ve got another fic in-progress for the milk series which is. simply put. a mp100 au where mob gets a cat and names her milk. i would like to leave the plot a surprise, but here’s a snippet i have written:

As for Milk? Well, Milk was a cat. And if there was one thing she loved, it was running up to meet the new clients Reigen brought to the office in a selfishly motivated quest for a few pats on the way to Reigen’s desk and maybe a spot curled up on a new friend’s lap during the interview. Most customers were obliging, offering the small striped cat a brief scratch behind the ears before continuing with their meeting; a few even ended up wasting their entire session time playing with Milk, but still left saying they felt completely rid of their evil spirit problem and would be sure to come back if the problem resurfaced.

now let’s move into my grouptale au

the first wip is from the next chapter of Fallen Down which is a prequel to my original fic for the series. this chapter’s going to tell the story of how alex (the orange soul human) fell down. here’s an excerpt: 

Alex watched the pair of them go further down the sidewalk, staring after them until they turned a corner and were out of sight. Turning back around, Alex couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy at what that little kid had. The safety and security of someone else’s arms was something Alex had never known.

my next wip is for Birds Of A Feather which is abt robin reuniting with their three older biological siblings. i don’t have anything written for chapter 4 yet, but here’s something from the outline that sums the plot of the next chapter up pretty well:

i’ve also got a fic for bell planned. it’d be abt them reuniting with their family. more specifically reuniting with their twin brother, blue. it’ll be about two chapters long:

“You were such an idiot, Bell. It’s your fault you fell down,” Blue muttered after a moment, glaring out at the backyard as if he could set it on fire with an angry grimace. “You and your stupid bets.” 

 “I know,” Bell said, blushing and pushing their curls up off their forehead. “I know and I’m sorry.” 

 “You should have listened to me when I told you not to mess around on Mt. Ebott,” Blue continued. “But nooooo...There’s no way that the invincible Bell Beaumont could ever fall down that chasm,” he threw a glare over his shoulder. “Except that they did. And their twin brother had to tell their parents just exactly why they hadn’t come home with him that night.” 

a fic i’m excited about but probably won’t get around to really working on for a while is a fic about hop. and basically it’s about their birth mother reinstating custody after she finds out hop is alive and back on the surface. here’s a bit of the outline i think is funny (mel is hop’s birth mom’s name):

the last two things are gonna be completely original content so yeAH. know that. 

i’m bad and none of my stories have titles. but uh. first up is my clone story. which features my two ocs estrella and charlotte who were part of my first original story back when i was about twelve/thirteen years old. i scrapped that story a long time ago but i held onto those two b/c i loved them a lot but i just. never had any story for them so i would write little blurbs of them in different settings. and it started as a little joke that they were “dimension-hopping” but now that’s kind of canon? 

basically. they’re lab-created clones who have psychic powers and they’ve lived their whole lives in this lab building as part of their mother rhea’s experiment. and one day they bust out and try to adjust to living without the pressure of other people deciding their lives for them. all while the lab people badboy finger snap in the background. and here’s a summary of the two main characters:

last but not least is my main project that i’ve been working on for a little over six years now. and if i had to sum the plotline up with one screenshot it would be: 

and that’s the truth okay. so without giving too much away. the main character leah is adopted and. through some events i’m gonna leave vague. her older half-brother johann finds out about her and contacts her to come meet him and her other siblings (all of whom have different mothers from each other except hans and hinton). so she goes to meet all of these family members w/ her three main girls and the Drama ensues when their father franz shows up. 

it’s basically an ode to shitty parenting and those Family Secrets that you learn when you get older that just shine a light on everything fucked up in your family. here’s a blurb i wrote for when my personal fave character horatio is first introduced:

“You what?” Cyrano sputtered. “How did you lose your phone? You haven’t left the house since Andrew Jackson got elected!”

 “Actually, not since Nixon got elected, but whatever,” they rubbed the back of their neck. Leah caught a glimpse of their bare arm, it was battered and scarred like someone had gone at it with a dull knife.

 “Anyways,” Horatio groaned a little, sounding pained as they lowered their arm back down. “I didn’t lose my phone, per se. I threw it out the window.”

 “Why did you do that?” Cyrano sighed, crossing his arms as if he really didn’t want to know.

 “That fucking uhhh....That fucking alarm thing wouldn’t turn off,” they said, opening their eyes again. They seemed to notice Julienne this time, squinting up at her in confusion, but not saying anything. Leah flew under their radar completely. “I kept hitting the red circle with the phone in it, but just like every ten seconds it would start again.”

 “The red circle with the phone only pops up when you’re getting a phone call,” Cyrano said, furrowing his eyebrows and looking a bit insulted. “That was me trying to call you. And you threw your phone out the window.”

 “Ohhhh…” Horatio nodded, tapping their chin thoughtfully before giving a shrug. “Two birds with one stone, I guess.”

thanks for reading!! hopefully some of these actually get finished in the near future.

[tanisisdreaming]

Episode 102: Radio, Radio

Part 2 of 2

[voice of Nic]: sorry it took me a while to pick up, I’m actually driving.

MK: Okay. Are you cool to talk?

Nic: Yeah! I’m hands-free.

MK: Well that’s great.

Nic: Ha, okay.

MK: I found something you might be interested in.

Nic: What is it?

MK: Okay well I had a few bots trolling some Russian and eastern European bitbuckets for the word ‘Tanis,’

Nic: Okay…

MK: I got a hit this morning. It might be nothing, it’s a few weeks old, um but somebody in Kiev posted something to a now defunct bulletin board.

Nic: Uh, what was the post about?

MK: Some guy looking for his sister.

Nic: Some guy looking for his sister?

MK: Yeah.

Nic: I don’t understand.

MK: Okay, well apparently this Canadian guy living in Kiev named Sam Reynolds’ sister went missing, she was working for the…uh, hold on…Tesla Nova Corporation on some kind of top secret project?

Nic: Oh, well that’s interesting.

MK: Yeah. Somebody posted the word ‘Tanis’ in response to his last message. And then, of course, it was deleted right away.

Nic: They deleted the response right away?

MK: They deleted the entire message board.

Nic: Wow.

MK: Yeah. It looks like Reynolds posted three times before the board was disabled.

Nic: Could you send me those messages?

MK: Yeah, I did it.

Nic: You did it?

MK: Yeah.

Nic: Oh! Well thanks, great.

MK: No, there’s more, hold on.

Nic: Okay

MK: Three audio files were uploaded as well.

Nic: If you don’t mind sending those over when you get a chance, that would be awesome.

MK: Already done.

Nic: Great! Well, thanks a lot.

MK: Nothing to it. Later.

 Meerkatnip was turning into an invaluable resource. Both the message board posts and the voice messages were waiting for me when I got back to the office. I’ll be reading the posts by Sam Reynolds, and I’ve recruited Alex Reagen again, to read the posts from his missing sister. The messages that prompted Sam Reynolds to track down this message board and reach out, in the first place.

 [Nic, reading Sam Reynolds’ messages]: I’m posting here because I don’t know where else to turn. It all started with an email I received from my sister. Her name’s Tara Reynolds. And she’s been working up near Seattle. She was contracted by Tesla Nova Corporation more than a year ago, kind of a retainer situation. About a month or so ago, she finally received a call. There’s quite a bit of security and secrecy surrounding the project, so her messages have been limited, and monitored. She’s an archeologist specializing in new energy, so a bit of security isn’t all that unusual for her. Here’s her first message:

[voice of Alex Reagen, reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: From: Tara Reynolds. Tuesday, June 8th, 2015, 11:57 am. Subject: You’ll get a kick out of this.

Hey, kid. I talked to Steph last night. She bought a sailboat. Crazy. I can’t wait to make fun of her when it sits there unused for three years. I hope you’re well. I miss you. Things are getting pretty interesting up here. Exciting. Although, the bugs would drive you crazy. I won’t be able to communicate as much as I’d like, they took our phones this morning. And after tomorrow, we’re only allowed one hour of monitored internet each week. But it’s a fair trade. You wouldn’t believe the funding. We’ve got everything. The food is amazing. Better than any other placement. Better than the cryptography training institution outside Paris, if you can believe it. This is post-grad living at its best. Talk soon. Love you, Tara.

[Nic, reading Sam Reynolds’ messages]: the next message came a few days later.

[Alex, reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: No way you’re going to believe this. You know how I told you we’re not allowed phones, cameras, or recording devices of any kind? Well, I kind of made a pinhole camera out of one of those mini cereal boxes. Frosted Flakes style. I’ve attached a photo I took with the cereal camera to this message. This is probably the last email you’ll receive from me for a while. They stepped up security around the area as soon as the cabin appeared. Out of nowhere, by the way, I’m not kidding. One day the woods are empty, the next day, a tiny old wooden cabin. Some kind of rare hardwood too, I heard the experts mumbling something about it, but all the senior team members are Russian. My Russian is pretty far from outstanding, as I’m sure you remember. I can’t wait to sit down in a pub and tell you all about it. They outlawed anything with a camera, so the guards all carry old flip phones. There’s one guy who leaves his coat unattended for hours. I’m sure his phone is in his pocket. If I can get his phone, I’ll give you a call. If I can’t get a signal, I’m pretty sure that phone has a voice recorder. I had the same one in high school. I’ll try and send you an audio file. Anyway, this is awesome. You’re going to lose your mind. Love you.

 We uploaded the photo Tara took from her cereal box pinhole camera to our website in our notes section. Sam says he didn’t hear anyting from his sister for a few weeks, and then…this.

 [voice of Alex reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: Hey Sam. I hope you got my picture. It’s been crazy. I couldn’t get away. I stole the guard’s phone, but I was almost caught. It was close. We’ve only been allowed sporadic access to the cabin, mainly to examine some ancient text carved into the floor and walls. It’s amazing. I wish I had a camera. A video camera would have been perfect. But it’s too late now. The cabin disappeared. We woke up and it was just…gone.

 A few days later, another message.

 [voice of Alex reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: Something is happening. It didn’t disappear. It moved. It took a few days, but they were able to track it somehow. A man just arrived this morning, an American. Apparently he’s been working with the Russians for a while. He seems to know a lot about whatever this is, whatever’s happening. It looks like he’s in charge of the whole operation now. He’s smart, and also not that hard to look at. He has some kind of electronic device he consults. Im guessing he’s using that to track the cabin somehow. The theoretical science they’re looking at here is bonkers. I’ve seen some things up here…you wouldn’t believe it. I don’t believe it.

 Then nothing for a week, until…

 [voice of Alex reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: It’s insane. There’s so many people here now. They don’t trust each other, and I don’t think they trust any of the outsiders. I’m scared. I can’t even walk to the food tent without an armed escort. I’m still working on one of the guards. Sometimes they leave their bags when they shower. I might be able to get the phone, but I don’t know for sure. They definitely have some way of at least guessing where this thing might end up. ‘This thing’ being the cabin. If what I overheard yesterday is true, which is unlikely because it sounds nutso, they’ve been tracking this thing for ages. All over the state. Part of me can’t wait for this contract to end, but, and this may sound crazy, I really want to get back in. To examine those markings.

 Sam tells us that the next three messages he received were blank. But each had a brief audio file attached. We’re going to play them in order. This is the first message:

 [voice of Tara Reynolds]: I bribed one of the guards to go down the hill to smoke so I only have a few minutes. I brought a small flashlight and a tape measure. Just, stay with me. It gets good, I promise. I noticed something that the other archeologists missed. Everybody’s thinking in such a linear way, but I saw something in the ancient writing, just a few inches of blank space at the end, and it’s gonna sound crazy but I’m sure it wasn’t there yesterday. So, you guessed it. I’m measuring the cabin. Inside the cabin, the south wall is exactly 31 feet 4 inches long.

I’m back outside in front of the south wall. Are you sitting down? Outside measurement of the south wall is exactly 26 feet. Sam, I don’t know how, but this thing’s bigger on the inside than the outside! I’m not making this up. Do you have any idea what this could mean? Yeah, me neither. …Shit, I have to go.

 The next audio file was sent two hours later.

 [voice of Tara Reynolds]: I-I don’t have long. I got back to my tent and I couldn’t sleep, I forgot to mention that nobody can agree on the age of this thing, which is really odd. Carbon dating puts it…well, it must be a mistake. There’s no way it’s that old. Something else is bugging me. A symbol on the cabin wall? I came back, and I snuck past the guards. Sam, two hours ago the south wall measured 5 feet longer than the outside wall, and now…Sam, the south wall? Measures 94 feet! The exterior’s exactly the same. It’s incredible. And inside the cabin the air is cool, and feels thicker, or maybe just different, or maybe it’s just me, but there’s a slight metallic smell in the air? Sam, I think I can hear them outside. I’m gonna have to –

 It cuts off there. Her last message comes in, just a few seconds later.

 [voice of Tara Reynolds]: I’ve been inside the cabin for the past four hours. I’m using the light of the phone, I-I didn’t notice something. The wall was 94 feet, but there was a new corner! I couldn’t see it until later. A hallway…Sam, I’ve been walking for 90 minutes through a maze of halls and rooms. It’s…I don’t know where I am. I-I tried to go back, but I’ve been using the light of the phone and the battery’s about to die…Sam, I love you. And I’m scared. I’m –

 There’s a lot to think about here. Is she overtired? Is she maybe experiencing a kind of garrison mentality? A lonely wilderness type of madness? That seems unlikely, as there were other people in the camp. And what about the cabin itself? She seems convinced that its measurements make no sense. In addition, her last two messages come in only seconds apart, but she believes she’s already spent four hours wandering, lost inside a 26 foot square cabin.

Sam’s last post on the message board reads: “That’s the last I heard from Tara. That was three weeks ago. They’re treating it like a missing persons case. The police have been supportive generally, I suppose, I really don’t think they’re taking her messages or recordings seriously. They believe she was sick because she stopped taking her medication. She’s on Lexapro for very minor general anxiety, nothing like this. She’s not crazy. If she says it was bigger on the inside, then it was. She doesn’t have a boyfriend or husband, and there’s no family but me. She’s all alone out there. Please, help me find my sister.”

We’re still looking into it. But at the moment, that’s everything we have on Tara Reynolds. Which brings us, as it often does, back to Meerkatnip, who found something very interesting on the internet this morning.

 [voice of Meerkatnip]: Heya.

Nic: Hey, how’s it going?

MK: I don’t have long to chat.

Nic: Oh.

MK: Sorry, softball game.

Nic: Oh, alright, well then uh, let’s get right to it then.

MK: I got a Tanis search term hit from an archived cache system in Australia. From a PDF.

Nic: Oh, you can search text in a PDF?

MK: I can.

Nic: [laughs] okay.

MK: It was something called a galley? I guess that’s some kind of a book?

Nic: Yeah, it’s like a pre-release.

MK: Like a beta release?

Nic: Yeah, kind of.

MK: Looks like one of the chapters featured the word ‘Tanis’ more than twenty times.

Nic: It looked like?

MK: Yeah, I wasn’t able to get that one, somebody snatched it before I could reassemble the bits.

Nic: Really?

MK: Mhm. Crazy tech.

Nic: What was it, uh, what was it called? The galley?

MK: The document was titled…uh, hold on…Pacifica.

Nic: Pacifica…? Are you able to remember anything else?

MK: My system usually captures an image of everything that hits my desktop.

Nic: Cool. Uh, usually?

MK: [sighs] There are a few…organizations that frown upon that kind of tech and take precautions, usually some kind of after-the-fact encryption? I never know until I try and pull up the captured files.

Nic: Wow. And?

MK: Somebody did not want me taking pictures. I was able to save one page using the camera on my phone.

Nic: Well, can you send me that photo?

MK: You know I will.

NIc: Cool, thanks. Um, well I’ll try and work on –

MK: I gotta run, okay?

[sound of skype call ending]

Nic: Oh, okay.

 Meerkatnip sent the image. It looks like the first page of a galley, a fictional novel, maybe fantasy or science fiction based on the writing style. I’ll include a copy of it in the notes section of our website, at tanispodcast.com. But basically it’s an introductory paragraph, nothing revelatory. But there is a header that mentions the title, the writer’s name, and the date. Pacifica, by A. Ellis. March 19th, 2003. The Publisher wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the document, and they were unable or unwilling to confirm any involvement with a book called Pacifica. And they also told me that there isn’t now, nor has there ever been, somebody on their roster writing under the name A. Ellis. I asked Meerkatnip if she could look into it.

One of our executive producers, Paul Bay, went to school with one of the senior editors at that publishing company. He got in touch with her to set up a meeting.

 [voice of Paul Bay]: Alright, so, my contact told me nobody at the company has ever heard of a book called Pacifica, or a writer named, um, okay so this is where I think it gets really interesting.

Nic: Really? What…okay.

Paul: What she told me is that there’s no one, nobody there has ever heard of a writer named Avery Ellis.

Nic: So, okay, all we had on the document was A. Ellis.

Paul: Yeah. Right, exactly.

Nic: Well, okay, but, Avery Ellis is Cameron Ellis’ daughter, it could be a simple slip-up.

Paul: That’s exactly what she told me. A. Ellis is like M.K. Olsen or P. Hilton, a simple mistake.

Nic: But…?

Paul: Yeah, but. [laughs] I’ve known her for a pretty long time, something doesn’t feel right here. So I tried to push, but I think it’s a dead end.

 [voice of MK]: Avery Ellis? The rich bitch?

Nic: Yeah. Is there any chance that she wrote that book?

MK: Well, I don’t think so. Um, but outside of the society stuff I can’t find much on her. I do know she paid a cleaner to scrub her off the web after that nude photo came out a few years ago.

Nic: A cleaner?

MK: Yeah, they did a pretty good job. There’s still a shitload on there, but most of the real information was buried.

Nic: Wait, you can do that? Erase yourself from the internet?

MK: Kind of. There’s two kinds of cleaners. There’s ones who change the story and bury the bad stuff under page after page of good stuff. And then the other kind, the kind she used. People like me go in and…clean. You can rewrite your entire history if you want.

Nic: And they call that cleaning?

MK: Yeah. And it’s expensive. Like, two commas expensive.

NicL Wow

MK: Oh, before I forget. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the meeting, it’s not because I don’t want to meet you in the flesh, I just couldn’t get out of my other gig in time.

Nic: …I’m sorry, what meeting?

MK: Um…did you smoke a huge bowl earlier? You set up a meeting with me for coffee this morning.

Nic: Um…not me.

MK: You didn’t send me an email asking to meet for coffee to talk about another job?

NIc; No, I didn’t.

MK: Well, somebody used your computer to send me a message.

Nic; What, somebody used my email account without me knowing?

MK: Not just your email. They used your computer.

 So, who used my computer? Who sent Meerkatnip a message, posing as me, asking for a meeting? And why?

On the next episode, our investigation uncovers a very strange story about death, water, and another mysterious cabin in the Pacific Northwest. It’s Tanis. I’m Nic Silver. Until next time, keep looking.