#be able to say things without feeling like shit or feeling like a stupid dumb spoiled fucking person

[clowninthecoffeehouse]

i want to draw so bad but i can’t focus because my head hurts and i know i will be in less pain if i get off my phone and out of bed but i can’t stand up without feelings violently dizzy i am going to explode i want to do something instead of wasting all my time

[spitblaze]

because i am always always ALWAYS anxious that someone is gonna interpret something i say in bad faith i made that anti-transmasculinity post bc there was a minute or two on tumblr and twitter where trans men were the Embarassing Cringe Queers Du Jour and people were like 'lol trans men dont even face any sort of discrimination outside of garden variety transphobia' which is patently fuckin untrue and im very tired of being called a 'pussy' and a 'whiner' because people do not take me seriously as a man unless its to claim im a predator or violent so. theres that

[8liralik-armin-albumu]

how

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

What about the Doors/Pressure shopkeepers trying to pretend they aren't giving their crush special treatment when in groups. Like, special inventory, discreet discounts, all that jazz

Jeff (Doors)

"Oye, I see what you're doin', Jeff. Thought you weren't one for giving out freebies."

*shrug*

"Don't play dumb! I saw you sneak the skeleton key into their bag! Even Bob's a witness!"

No matter what El Goblino says, Jeff will just wave off any accusations of him giving you "special treatment" whenever you stopped by the shop with your group.

While none of them donated to the tip jar, you were the only one who ever did...and even when you came back again and again, it was always you who showed him charity.

The rest of your group would just argue over what to spend their money on, try to rush ahead, mess with his radio, etc. etc.

But you trust Jeff, and he trusts you <3

So you get small discounts on his wares, and despite him not being able to speak, you could tell he's only looking after you.

The goblin jokes about Jeff's little "crush" on you...then he sees the entity's eyes widen and realizes "wait amigo,,I wasn't being serious do you actually like them?????"

He just shoos him away and will deny it to kingdom come, but it is true.

The moment you realized his feelings for you was when Rush attacked the shop once, and you thought you were done for-

When Jeff instinctively pulled you behind the counter and slammed the shutter down, keeping you uncomfortably close (yet somehow you've never felt safer).

When it's all over, he blushes and lets you go free.

You thank him with a small kiss on the forehead(?) and promise to see him again soon.

The next time you get duped by Dupe, or attacked by Eyes, Timothy, Screech, or a snare and need to heal...you discover a few bandaids in your pocket that weren't there previously...

Huh.

Wonder who gave you those?

Sebastian (Pressure)

Normally, Sebastian doesn't care to make personal connections with any of the expendables.

He's just there as their supplier before seeing them off on their journey, hoping they're putting his resources to good use.

But recently he's been seeing you more often, coming by with a new group or by yourself, trying your best to survive long enough to reach him.

Ofc, you've died to stupid things before (or maybe you're just trying to get all the monster documents..in which he's convinced you're some masochist), but you did have the most common sense out of your group and didn't try to annoy him.

The others just waste flash beacon charges on trying to blind the poor guy and stick the keycard in a medkit they couldn't afford...and for what?

Why do your "friends" do that? Are they stupid or something?

You tell them to stop, and it's...actually kinda nice to hear somebody willing to defend him.

People usually don't give a shit about the giant scary fish's feelings, yet for some reason you do.

Of course, Sebastian was reasonably suspicious about it.

"Are you acting this way just to get a freebie?" He assumes. "Because if you are, then you're definitely as stupid as-"

"No, I'd never do that to you." You shake your head. "You're here, helping us survive out there, risking a lot to get us those supplies...is it wrong for me to appreciate that?"

"......"

He goes quiet for a minute, but after the rest of your group leaves, he asks you to stay for a moment.

"You were looking at this Necrobloxicon for a while...you must reeeeally want it, huh?" He grins, flicking his tail where the book was strapped. "It's a rarity."

"I...can't afford that. I'm fine with this dingy flashlight-"

"It's yours for 70% off. Take it or leave it."

You do a double take. "Wait, wha-"

"70% off. Take it. Or leave it." He says through gritted teeth, impatient, only to smile when you accept the deal without further question. "Good. Now don't go telling anyone I'm offering discounts. That's your only one unless I feel generous. Capiche?"

"Gotcha. Thank you, Seb. This means a lot. I hope to see you again soon." You smile back, holding the spooky book tightly, and leave him alone with his thoughts.

And a warm and fuzzy feeling in his chest-

Wait.

"Oh no....what the fuck am I doing????? That's it! NO more discounts for anyone, Sebastian!" He scolds himself.

Little does he know, he's gonna keep giving them out, but only for you.

[unkreativstermensch]

"Still super jealous as hell by the way.“

"Okay, now, can you…get outta my face?“ Steve annoyedly swats a hand at Eddie’s chest and ducks out of his space.

Eddie sighs and shakes his head. "Why are you-" He purses his lips, thinks. "You don’t…you still don’t like me very much, do you?"

At that Steve stops walking, huffs out an annoyed breath and presses his eyes closed. He turns to Eddie, looks at him with an expression Eddie can’t read and says, "No, Eddie. No, I don’t."

Eddie just watches him for a second, not sure what to do, studies his face, the furrow between his brows, the clear discomfort in his expression.

He scoffs. Getting a little angry. "Jesus, man,“ he says. "You just can’t get over it, huh? And here I was rambling on about how you were actually a good dude after all, but…no, turns out Steve Harrington is still just as much stuck in his stupid high school mindset as I would have thought.“

Steve just looks more annoyed now, a slight shift in his eyebrow and…he looks…frustrated? A little? How does that make sense?

"You,“ Steve says, voice low, but not because of the monsters, Eddie knows that much, "are unbelievable.“

Eddie blinks. "What?“

"Eddie, you’re the one who can’t get over it,“ Steve accuses him. "You always talk about that non-conformist shit and how people should just stop with the categories and drawers and labels but, dude, you’ve never judged people that way yourself! I have been saved in your brain as this dumb idiot jock ever since you’ve known me and…“ Steve huffs out an unbelieving breath. "And Eddie, I don’t know what to tell you…but you’ve never been nice to me. Ever. And when Lucas made the basketball team, which is amazing, by the way, you weren’t proud of him or supported him for that incredible achievement like you should have if he’s really one of your 'little sheep‘.“ He draws quotation marks in the air. "You punished him for it. You said you can’t make Hellfire? Fuck you. I’m just gonna have the most important part of the campaign without you, because you know what, you don’t deserve us anymore now that you’ve joined the dark side. Now that you’ve taken up a…a jock game. Because god forbid, somebody could actually ever enjoy playing sports.“

Eddie can’t follow. His mind’s lagging behind, still stuck on Steve apparently knowing DnD terms and saying he was never nice to him and-

Steve takes another step back.

"Eddie, for as long as I can remember you hated me. And yeah, sure, I was stupid and I did some stupid things, but…“ he shrugs one sided. "But I don’t think I deserve to be treated that way. I think I at least deserved a chance. And you never gave me one.“

Eddie blinks. "What do you mean I never gave you a chance, I-"

"Biology, sophomore year,“ Steve interrupts him. "We were assigned lab partners. I tried to really…put all of it aside, tried to get to know you, because actually, Eddie, you know what? I was sort of obsessed with you. Because you were so…loud and so unashamedly yourself, I admired you so much. You didn’t care about anything and you stood up for yourself and that’s something I’ve never been able to do, my whole life. I…“ Steve looks down, sighs a little. "I let people push me around because it’s the only way I feel like I can be of use. But you…you made me believe that maybe actually I…could do it, you know? Like, tell Tommy H. off or something…“ He looks so hurt. Eddie kind of wants to die. "But you…you acted like it was the worst thing ever, getting partnered with me. You didn’t even look at me. You…never gave me a chance, Eddie. So…sorry if one 'you’re actually a good dude, Harrington' doesn’t make me forget all of that, make up for it. Because I’m not so sure I believe you.“

Oh.

Oh no.

Eddie fucked up.

[pretty-circa006]

Sex Ed

Coach! Negan x Student! F! Reader summary You have some follow up questions after Coach Negan's sex ed class tags student teacher relationship, age gap (reader is 18 negan is like pushing 40?), blowjob, pet names

wc: 1.9k

note i tried a little something new when writing this, can you tell what it is?

*you are responsible for your own content consumption. if this is something you DO NOT like, simply DO NOT read or interact! :) *

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Negan glowers at the students of his gym class sitting in the bleachers before him. They're all laughing like fools and making crude jokes that only displayed their immaturity. Seniors, they were supposed to be, but a majority of them acted like foolish middle schoolers.

"Listen up you dumb little sacks of shit!" he shouts. The students all quiet down, some getting startled by the loudness of his voice before doing so.

"I know a majority of you kids, well, technically young adults, are too immature to handle this shit, but the displeasure of teaching it to you has unfortunately been bestowed upon me." He slams his large hand on the whiteboard on wheels, bringing his students' focus to the topic of today's lesson; sex ed. His hazel-green eyes scan his audience with distain, daring them to say anything stupid- nobody did, which is a relief. But that relief instantaneously turned into dread when his eyes landed on her. From her seat in the center of the bleachers, she stares at Negan while seductively biting her finger and giving him sultry bedroom eyes.

He sighs to himself, quickly averting his gaze. She was always, always looking at him like that. Like she's an apex predator and he's the prey she'd been stalking, waiting to pounce and feast on his flesh. At first, it freaked him out, constantly feeling her eyes boring into his skin. But it quickly became flattering to know he had a little admirer. She's always the first to his class, the first to pay attention to him, the last to leave, and the only student to frequent his office. If that's all she did, she would have been just been a girl with an innocent little crush. But her crush was anything but little or innocent. He should have been able to realize that when she'd show up to every gym class in the world's tiniest shorts. If not then, he should at least have noticed when she'd spend excessive amounts of time in his office. He brushed all that off, though, assuming the shorts weren't for him and that she just liked his office for the air conditioning and bowl of candy on his desk.

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The lesson went by fairly smooth. Not many stupid joked were cracked, which was a win for Negan.

"Grab a complementary condom on your way out," he says as students get up from the bleachers, "and if you have any extra questions, you can come see me." He internally cringes at that last part. The internet was a thing and if students wanted to know something, they should look it up themselves instead of prolonging this awkward moment for him. But he had to do at least the bare minimum of what his job required him to do.

Thankfully, the students were just filing past him, some stopping to grab handfuls of condoms, and none of them stop to talk to him. The gymnasium is finally empty without a student in sight. Negan's honestly surprised she didn't stick around after class like she usually did, but he couldn't complain. He pushes his whiteboard back into his office and shuts the door behind him, ready to wind down and catch up on some work.

"Hey Coach."

"Jesus H. fuckin' Christ, kid!" A startled Negan shouts, hand clutching his heart. He finally notices the girl sitting at his desk in his chair with her feet propped up comfortably on the desk. He can't keep his eyes from scanning her legs, the smooth skin fully exposed from upper thigh to ankle.

She lets out a little giggle before her face returns to that usual seductive look.

"I had a question 'bout today's lesson," she tells him. Negan sighs and rubs a hand down his face, anticipating something wildly inappropriate to come from her mouth.

"Goddammit, kid, what is it?" he asks hesitantly.

"First off, stop calling me kid. I am eighteen," she explains, holding up a finger. "Second," she puts up another finger, "I want you to teach me something."

"That's not a question." She rolls her eyes at him and takes her feet off the desk.

"Will you teach me to give a blowjob?" Negan's eyebrows shoot up at the same time his eyes widen. She's dead serious too, looking at him with wide, hopeful eyes. Those same eyes drift from his down to the growing bulge in his gym shorts. She squeezes her thighs together and bites her lip.

"Darlin', you do know that what you're askin of me is wildly fuckin' inappropriate, right?" He's supposed to be serious, but the dimpled smirk on his face sends another message.

"You're supposed to be teaching sex ed, ain't ya?" she argues. His tongue swipes across his bottom lip, only riling up the oversexed girl even more.

"Inappropriateness aside, you couldn't handle all this," he says, motioning to his growing boner.

A smug smile makes its way across her face. She gets out of his chair, kneels in front of it, and pats the cushion, silently demanding him to take a seat. He takes a peak at her cute little ass that her tiny gym shorts were barely doing anything to cover. He figures that if he gives in to her demands, she'll realize that she, in fact, cannot handle what he's packing and will back off. He didn't particularly want her to shy away from him, but her forward behavior would pose a threat to his job sooner or later and he's not eager to get fired.

Fuck it. He locks the door to his office and sits in his chair. She's looking up at him through her long lashes, excitement radiating off of her.

"Well, ya can't suck my fuckin' dick through my fuckin' shorts."

"Oh. Right!" Her shaky hands reach toward the waistband of his gym shorts and he lifts his hips so she can pull them down just enough to free his cock. She lets out a little gasp when the large member springs up and slaps his abdomen. For the first time, her seductive, siren-like facade starts to slip, revealing a nervous, inexperienced girl. With a smug smirk on his face, he looks down at her. She talked so much game, but when it came time to play, she didn't even know how.

"I...I asked you to teach me, didn't I?!" she squeaks. She's embarrassed at how dumb she's sure she looks and even more so at the fact Negan's getting a kick out of this.

"Spit in your hand, doll. Then stroke it a few times," he instructs. She apprehensively spits a glob of saliva into her palm before gently wrapping her hand around him. She's mesmerized by his size, so thick her fingers couldn't touch. As she shyly moves her hand up and down his shaft, she occasionally glances up at him in search for his approval. There is none. He's unamused as he watches her. His wraps his larger hand around her smaller one and squeezes it tighter around his dick.

"Gotta put more presser than that, sweetheart, 'cause I can't feel a damn thing."

She nods her head and he removes his hand, letting her try again on her own. With her hand wrapped more tightly around his cock, she can feel every ridge of his veins rubbing against her fingers. Negan lets out a seemingly satisfied sigh which encouraged her to go faster. Her mouth makes an 'o' shape when she sees precum leaking from his reddening tip. She impulsively brings her head down to him and experimentally kitten licks the precum, before taking the entire tip into her mouth. She looks up at him again, but he's already looking down at her with lust darkened eyes.

"Go on, baby, you can fit more of me in that sweet little mouth of yours," he taunts. She lowers her head until his tip makes contact with the back of her throat, but even then he's not all the way in. His thick, throbbing member fills her mouth, resting heavily on her tongue. With more confidence, she begins bobbing her head up and down. Negan's hand grips a handful of her hair and stops her.

"Don't use your teeth," he corrects her. She chokes a 'sorry,' out from around his cock, the vibration from it feeling good. In her effort to not use any teeth, she hollows her cheeks, the spongy flesh of their insides caressing Negan as she bobs her head. With the hand that's still gripping her hair, Negan forces her to go a little faster, but doesn't push her all the way down on his cock. She picks up the pace on her own, causing Negan's grip to relax.

"That's it, darlin', you're takin' my cock so fuckin' good right now." Her nails dig into his thighs as she continues despite the pain in her tired jaw. His praise sends a wave of heat directly to her core causing her neglected cunt to clench over nothing. But his praise wasn't enough. She wants to hear his pleasure, to hear him moan and come undone in her mouth. She forces the remaining inches of him down her throat, but she immediately regrets it when she gags around him. But she's already in too deep and wouldn't dare dream of quitting now.

"Holy fuckin' shit, doll!" he pleasurably groans, "you are a goddamn dick suckin' natural!" She can feel him twitch inside her mouth, a telltale sign that he's close. Her own cunt throbs, despite receiving no attention. Both of his hands grip her hair as his restraints come undone and begins fucking her face. Exasperated profanities and moans fall from his mouth as she takes him so well.

"Want me to cum inside your throat, doll?" He gets out between pants. She hums an 'mmm hmm' as she tries to move in time with his thrusts. His head falls back against the chair and eyes slightly roll back as his hips rut into her mouth, burying her nose in his dark curls. As he shoots his hot load into her mouth, a guttural moan claws its way out of his throat.

He pulls his softening dick from her mouth and tucks it back into his shorts. He leans down and grabs her jaw so he can admire her pretty, cock drunk face. The trails of dark mascara tears dried on her cheeks and her lips are slightly swollen and her hair is a mess. She looks perfect.

"Open," Negan commands. She opens her mouth, showcasing to Negan his cum resting on her tongue.

"Now swallow." She does and maintains eye contact with him the whole time.

"That's my good fuckin' girl," he praises, causing heat to spread on her cheeks and down to her pussy. She stands up, using the desk behind her as support. Her knees are slightly bruised, a delicious sight to Negan.

"Thanks for teaching me, Coach," she says, her tone slightly teasing.

"Yeah, alright. I gave you want you fuckin' wanted, so get outta my goddamn office." He means what he said, despite how playful he sounded.

"But wait," she says stepping closer to him. He raises an eyebrow in response as she grabs his hand and brings it close. She puts his large hand in between her legs, forcing him to feel how wet he made her. He looks up at her , his face morphing into a dark smirk.

"Don't you wanna return the favor, Coach?"

note and the answer is....present tense! i wrote this in present tense instead of my usual preferred past tense. thoughts?

[sensitivegoblin]

…

[judyvan]

Keep It Down (The Movie Night) - Matt Sturniolo Fanfic

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The Movie Night

Summary: You desperately want Matt, but his brothers are in the house. Will you be able to contain yourself to avoid the awkwardness?

Warnings: Cursing

A/N: This is my first fanfic. Interactions are appreciated. This story has multiple parts, this is the first one. Please don't steal my shit. Thanks!💋

To read the second part click here.

To read the last part (The Morning After) click here.

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"WHATTT WAS THAT?!?" Nick exclaims as the little boy in the center of the screen is swept away by a big monster.

      After a long day of hanging out with your boyfriend and his brothers, you're watching A Quiet Place back at their house. Matt Sturniolo, your long time boyfriend, saw the movie on Netflix and suggested that you guys watch it. His brothers, Nick and Chris, asked if they could join in.

"Okay. That's enough of this. I don't want to watch this stupid movie anymore," Chris says. "I cannot sit here and watch this movie if they aren't going to talk. It makes no sense. It's just dumb."

"Well, maybe Chris if you would just SHUT THE FUCK UP and watch the movie you would actually know what's going on!" Nick shouts back.

"No forget this. I'm just going to go to bed."

"Motherfucker you are not going to go lay down in my room without me in there," Nick says back.

"Looks like you'll be accompanying me then. Huh?"

"I guess I'll just finish the movie with you guys tomorrow, unless you plan on watching the rest of it tonight," Nick says, following Chris towards his room, looking back at you and Matt.

     Chris typically decides to sleep in his brothers' rooms. He picks a different sibling depending on his mood that day. Whenever you're over, he sleeps with Nick.

"We are going to keep watching the movie, but we will probably just go to my room," Matt starts. "I don't know if we will finish it or not though. I am kind of tired."

"Okay, you two," Nick starts with a smirk, "Goodnight, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite." He waves at you and Matt, fluttering his fingers and batting his eyes in a sarcastically flirty manner.

"Goodnight you guys," Chris says, mocking Nick's movements.

     You hear the pair bickering as they walk towards Nick's room, shoving each other back and forth.

     "Do you want to go to my room to finish watching the movie or should we stay here on the couch and watch it?" Matt asks.

      You can see the drowsiness in his eyes as he looks at you. It was pretty late at night and you were starting to feel tired too.

     "Let's just go to your room and watch it so we can lay down. I'm about ready for bed too." A giggle follows your response slightly before it is taken over by a big yawn.

      When you open your eyes, you see that your yawn spread to Matt. He now has his eyes closed, his mouth opens wide, and his head tilts back as he inhales deeply. As soon as his eyes open, they make direct contact with yours. The two of you laugh softly. Matt then picks up the remote and turns off the T.V. 

      He then begins to walk towards the kitchen, carrying the snacks that the four of you were eating in hopes of having a successful movie night. Obviously, that idea ended almost as soon as it started. As Matt begins to throw away things that are not able to be kept and putting the things that can be saved back in their place, you make your way over to the fridge.

     "Do you want me to grab you something to drink?" you say, pulling out a water bottle for yourself.

     "No I'm fine. Can I just share with you?"

     "Obviously not," you say sarcastically.

     The two of you leave the kitchen. Matt leads and you follow as he turns off the remaining lights in the house that don't stay on overnight. As you guys walk towards his room, you hear a lot of noise coming from Nick's room. Matt gives you a playful look and walks towards Nick's door. Without knocking, Matt barges in while you observe from the doorway. Nick and Chris are making TikTok dance videos.

     "You two don't look like you're very ready for bed," Matt says laughing.

     "Oh, shut up Matt," Nick says walking up to him and pushing him out of the door. "You messed us up."

     "Yeah, Matt. Shouldn't you be kissing your girlfriend or something?" Chris says sticking his tongue out as Nick shuts the door.

     "Fuck you guys," Matt yells back at the closed door, laughing.

     The two of you go into Matt's room and start to get ready for bed.

[nightdncer]

“ what a visit .. ”

✦ pairing : {modern!era} sukuna ryomen x fem!reader

✦ warnings : smut , cusses , taunting , teasing , pet names , spanking , fingering , doggy style , heavy description , 18+ only {I will not be blocking anymore, just don’t blame me if you get in trouble}

✦ A/N : I AM SO READY TO WRITE FOR KINKTOBER >:3

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you and sukuna were basically inseparable, you were like another uraume before uraume came into his life. you were more than his cook, more than uraume. you were his best friend ever since early childhood.

but of course, it was the king of curses himself, always loving to play silly little goofy pranks on you. like today, October 1st.

he called you saying he was in trouble, but in reality he was just sitting on his couch in his place. you quickly rushed to his place, and once you unlocked the front door, he instantly looked up at you from his phone. “missed me?” he softly teases you.

your shoulder slumped, then sitting right beside of him. you both usually never use physical affection, but he wrapped his arm around your waist, pulling you closer with his big and veiny hands on your waist. you then rest your head on his shoulder.

he seemed surprised feeling weight going down on his shoulder, but knowing it was just your head. he started rubbing circles on your waist, scrolling through his phone as you watched.

as you were zoning out, staring into his phone with no thoughts in head and your senses low, he kissed your forehead. you quickly looked up at him.

“w- what the-”

“liked it, silly?”

“…” you didn’t respond just that second, not wanting to say your embarrassing answer.

“cmon, spit it out, silly.” again, he used that nickname to taunt you. he always loved calling you nicknames that would get on your nerves, but never fully on annoying the shit out of you.

“yeah.”

he chuckled softly, glad that he was able to make you spit on the truth. he then placed both of his large heads against the sides of your head, his grip tight like he was gonna squish your head. he then placed multiple soft, small kisses onto your forehead again.

he seemed genuine with these kisses.

he wasn’t taunting you, teasing you for the hundredth of time, he was being… genuine.

did he like you? did he have a crush on you? possibly. I mean, you were his best friend since third grade and now it’s the second year of college, sophomore year of college. you were always there for him at the lowest, and he was there for you too. no matter how much dumb pranks you would pull on each other.

he pulled back and looked at you, a smirk tugging at the side of his lips, liking the effects he was putting on you. small rosy pink blush brushed against your cheeks, seemingly to be permanent. you quickly put your hands against your face, not wanting him to see.

“aww, hiding away from me, doll? I was just having fun.” he grabs both of your wrist and pinned your hands above your head, both of your eyes locking in with each other. you quickly looked away, not wanting him to see your flustered look.

but him himself sure did wanna see.

he grabs your chin tightly, his grasp being slightly unbearable. he then forces you to look at him, his other hand still having your hands locked above your head.

“you’re so cute when you’re like this… you’re mine, ya know?”

“… no.”

he seemed surprised, but then grabbed your neck, wrapping his hands around it. “mgh!-” you quickly stopped yourself from moaning out.

“why stop yourself, doll? this is just a fair punishment. mine. you’re mine.”

“n- nah uh-”

“stupid little thing.” his grip tightens, making you gasp for air. “hm.. I want more than that.”

~

you were in his bedroom in his apartment dorm, your body on his lap with your stomach touching his lap.

swat!

“t- ten..” you mumble out, tears of pleasure and pain coming out without you being able to blink to dry them up first. “crying already? so sensitive.”

“n- no-”

swat!

you slightly gasp, already visioning his red hand print printed onto your bottom.

“say it. say it, count for me, count.”

“eleve-”

swat!

“twelve…”

he quickly pulled down the college uniform skirt off of your waist, dragging your panties off.

“n- no!-”

“shut it, brat.” he commanded, not wanting to hear anything more than you counting.

as he kept slapping your bottom, you were getting wetter and wetter, your juices being all over your clit and on your thighs. you were praying he wouldn’t notice you being so wet, but as soon as you were about to say “twenty” he put his middle and ring finger into you.

“o- oh!” you gasps, eyes already rolled back. “mhmm… keeping making those stupid sounds for me.”

why does he always have to taunt you?! can’t he just get the work done without making you wetter and wetter? well, it’s sukuna still. you’re on sukuna’s lap. sukuna, himself. he’s known for being the most teasing this in the world basically, so teasing you can’t even get annoyed by him.

all the sounds were your wet folds going in and out in your hole while your pants and small moans, meaning to be so loud, but you gotta remember his nephew, Yuji was there. Yuji being a first year in Tokyo High, yet he lives with his little taunting uncle.

“don’t be so loud, what if yuji hears?” he quickens his pace, making you clench the sheets. “mgh, m- mhm..”

“good girl, keeping low so that brat doesn’t gotta hear…”

“a- ah..” your moans muffled due to him gripping your hair and your face into the sheets of the bed. “coming?” fuck. how could he tell? you were trying to make it so you didn’t seem like you were coming. “you can’t fool me, dear.” goddamnit, always having to add his comments into everything, but it didn’t bother you. you’ve gotten used to it.

you decide to just let your legs tremble badly, twitching every time he went in, and shaking more when he went out, his fingers already so deep and it’s probably only been five minutes since he started fingering you.

“good, good… come for me, come for me you little slut.”

and so, you did, not being able to hold it back anymore. he releases his teasing fingers out of you and putting it inside his mouth, loving the taste. it was sweet, yet wasn’t sweet. it wasn’t bitter, it was just amazing for him, like a forbidden fruit.

you could feel his bulge on your stomach, him growing harder and harder, as hard as a rock with him going into your hole just for the taste more.

~

“m- mgh..!!” you moaned into the sheets, sukuna being right you with your bottom facing him, him playing you into you more and more. your arms behind your back, sukuna hand wrapped around your tiny wrists. he then slaps your ass, still red handprints on it from earlier.

“fuuuckkk…. pussy so tight can barely move..” he groans out, continuing to go in and out of you, faster and fatser.

“didnt you say to keep quiet for yuji-”

“shut it, brat.”

seemed like he had two sides for the nickname “brat”. one is for you, you being the annoying, teasing brat, getting ready for punishment. the last part obviously only coming from here, you’re a first timer. the second meaning is for anyone else who gets on his nerves.

he kept his pace, going in and out, in and out, occasionally slapping your ass. he would have to make you count how many times he had. but he made you restart from earlier.

“why restart..?”

“asking me? dear. ask yourself why you didn’t just obey me and say ‘yes’ or ‘yes sir’ earlier fool.” he growled into your ear, his hot breath going onto your ear, sending shiver down your spine, making him slap your ass again.

“t- thirteen…” your counting shuffled with moans.

“good, good…” meanwhile, he was feeling pleasure himself, holding himself back from coming. he wanted to feel more of your slippery insides, feeling your tight hole opening space for his large length.

“f- fuck-” he moaned out, gripping your hair now, releasing your hands. “don’t. cover. your. mouth.” he warned, knowing you were gonna cover those pretty moans of yours. “coming?” you finally teased him, him slapping your ass hard, a sting of pain coming from it.

“I- I’m sorry..!”

swat!

“count, count for me hoe, count for me.”

“u- ugh.. fifteen..” you spit out without even thinking, forgetting the number due to him clenching your ass and finally coming into you.

“fuckkk…” he then let out a low chuckle. “we gotta do this more, doll…”

“don’t worry, I suppose I’ll help you clean up.”

finally. he’s not teasing you anymore.

[loseractivities]

Ok time to yap about Billy Loomis. What is bros sexuality?

Billy is 100% gay. I also think that he’s on the aromantic/asexual spectrum, with the best label fitting him being demiaroace. In simple terms, I think the only way he feels authentic romantic/sexual attraction is when he has a very deep emotional, (whether he likes to admit that or not), bond with someone.

People often like to bring up his romantic relationship with Sidney and his sexual affairs with other women, one of which we have proof of in the later movies. Because he was dating Sidney before his mom even left, and they were known to have started off “hot and heavy”, (as Billy likes to call it), he didn’t really have any reason to be doing that. Or did he?!

It goes without being said that Billy is a conventionally attractive white male in the ‘90s. In the movie, we already see Billy’s efforts to appear as normal as possible, wearing bland clothes with little room for interpretation and speaking very little to others. Which leads to why Billyboy was sleeping with girls when he was a big fat QUEER!! …

Billy loves control! He loves it, he loves planning everything out and acting it out like it’s a movie because of his dumb special interest. He loves predictability, he loves feeling normal, and he loves having control over people. What better way to feel in control, (perhaps of his own sexuality), than by sleeping with and casually dating girls!! It makes so much sense.

How does Stu play into this?

Well firstly Stu is Billy’s only real friend. Through subtext we can tell that Billy trusts Stu a lot, considering he trusted him to 1. Call Sidney while he was in jail. 2. Be ghostface with him and have him not tell anyone. 3. Literally fucking stab him… The list goes on. People like to say that Stu didn’t know Billy’s real motive too, which is fucking stupid because why wouldn’t Billy tell him this?? One entire year between murdering Sidney’s mother and then eventually attempting to murder her and all her friends, and you’re telling me Stu wouldn’t have suspected a thing? Just for fun?? Yeah right!

Also people try to say “okay, well then why did Billy stab him so much in the kitchen if he wasn’t trying to kill him”? Firstly it was always part of the plan for Stu and Billy to be the only survivors because only one survivor is extremely suspicious. Secondly you can tell he was just not thinking clearly, he acted on his anger and lost focus of his goal (KILLING SIDNEY??NOT HIS BF??) which is something he NEVER DOES!!

Man,, the whole final act is my favorite, because it really shows both Billy and Stu coming apart and quite literally COMING OUT as the killers. Come on guys. Media. Fucking. Literacy. They literally penetrate each other right in front of Billy’s girlfriend, and that shit was freaky as fuck.

ANYway I’m going off on a tangent. I do wanna talk about why Billy didn’t explicitly say anything about being gay when he so very obviously is. Billy, in all areas, is much less obvious than Stu.

He’s closed off, secretive, keeps up a pretty believable facade to everyone until the finally is able to drop the act. It makes sense he isn’t as physically or verbally affectionate with Stu, and for this reason people are more inclined to believe Stu is gay and in love with Billy more than Billy is gay and in love with him. Well, in order to get a good sense of Billy’s relationship with Stu, you have to look deeper. Let’s start with some things from the script, since there are very few scenes with the two interacting.

Stu and Billy, in the script, are best friends, have known each other since kindergarten, and are partners in crime. Billy obviously is capable of forming strong bonds and connections with very specific people. Even unhealthily so, and we see this in the relationship he has with his mother. He idolizes her, victimizes her, makes her more than she was as a coping mechanism and never officially comes to terms with the fact his mom probably wasn’t as great as he remembers. And when his mom leaves, he breaks, needs control (as stated previously) because his life is suddenly unstable and who does he turn to? Stu!

Also I just wanna say when Stu drapes over his back Billy leans into him okay thanks. Body language in this movie means SO FUCKING MUCH TO ME these actors did amazing. When Billy follows Sidney inside the look of CONTEMPT ON HIS FACE!! The way he looks through his eyelashes. The acting is impeccable Skeety, I love you!!!! 😐😐 Also the way Billy looks at Stu before stabbing himmm…He;s in love I promise. In whatever way he knows how

Lastly the boy has autism

Passionate interests, he loves horror movies and constantly references them throughout the film. Even at unconventional times, like when his girlfriend is venting about her dead mother. Eye contact and too much staring. Meltdowns when overstimulated. The whole last act was just him stimming and destroying shit because stuff didn’t go his way. Bad reactions when plans are interrupted. At the staircase when Sid runs away he punches himself in frustration. Talks with hands in Sidney’s room about The Exorcist. Favorite person/people (his mom and Stu). Extremely overdramatic. When he got fake stabbed. When he falls down the fucking stairs for no reason. Finally, just socially awkward. Any word out of his mouth makes people uneasy. Ez

…Finally for Billy I js wanna say he arches it a lot and I think only someone who takes it like a good boy wpu;ld do that Ok im done by.e

LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE BANGERS LIKE THIS ONE

[temis-de-leon]

Day 3 - Accidental kiss

Characters: Mammon x male!MC

25 kisses challenge Masterlist

Main Masterlist

CW: one (1) mention of a fight and blood, MC is almost as tall as Mammon, pre-established relationship, mutual pinning, they're kinda dumb

.

“WHAT?!”

MC was completely sure he’d need to book an appointment with his assigned doctor to check on his ear drums. He couldn’t even hear his own voice when he screamed at Mammon, who looked just as lost as him. The music was too loud, even for a demon apparently, making the floor pulsate along the rhythm and sending everyone to a frenzy. The only reason he was still close to Mammon was because his white hair glowed under the UV lights.

Although, another reason MC should take into consideration was his hidden feelings for his friend; something he still rejected because… What? How did it happen? One day they were play fighting because Mammon ate his stack of snacks and the next he was too embarrassed to even look at him without stuttering.

And around the same time, Mammon began demanding his undivided attention, so, were his feelings reciprocated and they were both stupid? Or did Mammon just miss their previous friendship? Either way, MC had to get his shit together before making things even more awkward.

Bringing him back to the real world, Mammon shook his head, running a hand through his hair before grabbing MC’s arm and pulling him infuriatingly close to his body. The air grew hot around them and when Mammon spoke directly into his ear, a whole wave of goose bumps made MC tremble.

“I said we should go home! There’s a fight right behind you!”

His eyes opened in surprise and he quickly turned around in morbid curiosity. Sure enough, a couple of demons were throwing punches and head-butting each other with their horns, just like mountain goats. The comparison made him chuckle, but suddenly he saw blood.

“Okay, maybe we should!”

The demon started walking away, but he didn’t have time to search for a way out before someone bumped into MC and sent him deeper into Mammon’s arms.

They were both tall, almost the same height.

Had MC been a little bit shorter, his face would’ve ended in the crook of Mammon’s neck.

But he was tall.

He didn’t even realize they were kissing until everyone around them gave them enough space to move away from each other. His lips stung where they clashed against Mammon’s teeth and his chin hurt like crazy, but he didn’t care. MC had the taste of sweetness in his mouth and he was completely sure he’d seen Mammon drinking something sugary at the start of the night.

Without realizing what he was doing, he licked his lips. Mammon stared at his actions with wide eyes.

“Someone pushed me” he said, still close enough to be properly heard. He just hoped the music covered the beat of his heart.

“Yeah, yeah, sure”

MC whished the disappointment in Mammon’s eyes was real, but he felt his whole body tingling and his mind was buzzing in excitement, so he knew he couldn’t trust himself at the moment. Or any other moment, for that matter. There was no doubt he’d be reliving the kiss for the rest of the night, even if it was accidental.

“But, like… It wasn’t bad, right?”

Mammon said something else after that, lowering his gaze and scratching his neck, but his voice was too low and MC wasn’t able to understand him.

What did he say?

WHAT DID HE SAY??

“It could���ve been better”

They stayed in silence for a few seconds, some people still screaming to stop or encourage the fight and others swaying in the dancefloor, lost in the music and the intimacy of the violet lights. Mammon’s face would’ve been funny in any other situation, but right now, MC wanted him to say something. Even if it was stupid.

To his surprise, the demon hid a cheeky smirk behind his hand.

Before MC could question anything, he felt skilled fingers confidently grabbing his nape and dragging him forward.

“Wanna try again?”

.

.

Taglist: @ourfinalisation  @owlisbuffering  @chizukimp4  @ravenredwine @darkflowerav  @beatlebeesstuff

[aswefindourwayback]

I love you, I’m sorry

Authors note: this is my most vulnerable piece of writing that I’ve ever shared since it’s taken inspiration from some terrible moments in my life. So it’s not my best piece of writing. Feedback is always appreciated.

Word count: 2071

Content warning: mentions of poor mental health, angst

you’ve never been able to keep people in your life, no matter how hard you tried. you would always change parts of you to fit other people’s wants and needs but it was still never enough. it got so bad that you were having thoughts about ending it all, thinking it’d be easier for everyone around you. they wouldn’t have to deal with your bullshit anymore and they could finally breathe again. but you instead threw yourself into your work.

you were already good at your job, but you quickly became the best. your work became your life. you stopped seeing and talking to your friends because you got so caught up in your work.

after years of working your ass off, you found yourself as a profiler for the FBI. you were now a member of the BAU. it took some getting used to and learning how to socialize but you got the hang of it. you guys were cracking case after case. you got along with all your coworkers and you guys often had fun together. you really loved all the laughs and good times you had with them, even outside of office hours. like that one time Emily, jj, and Penelope invited you out to go shopping and get dinner. it was something you were terrified of doing, getting closer to people and getting out amid socializing again, but you did it and found that it wasn’t as bad as you’d made it out to be in your head.

but there was one who you really got along with. spence. when you guys first met, you were both a bit shy and timid. but with time, you two grew incredibly close, always going to each other for anything and everything. and over time you fell for him, without meaning to. you knew it would complicate not only work but your friendship with him. your friendship with him means the world to him and you don’t know what you’d do if you lost him, so you kept your feelings to yourself. until one day, you didn’t.

it had been a normal day when rossi had called you into his office to talk about some case details. after going over the details and correcting him a few times, he asked you something:

“so, when are you gonna tell him?”

“what? tell who what?” you asked, completely lost in the conversation.

“reid. when are you gonna tell him how you feel?”

“spencer? what do i feel for him?” you said trying to play stupid. but it was rossi, he could see straight through you.

“Dont play dumb, kid.”

You slouched your shoulders in defeat, “no, i’m not gonna tell him.”

“Why not?”

“there’s a millions reasons to stay quiet”

“but there’s a million reasons to tell him too. don’t be afraid y/n.”

“easy for you to say. you’re not the one confessing your feelings”

“but i’ve done it a million times, kid. trust me. what if something good comes from this?”

“what if i ruin the one good thing in my life?”

“you won’t”

“how do you know that?”

“i just do.”

“what if it’s not the right time? like we’ve got that new case coming up and spence has been through some awful shit recently.”

“there’s never a “right time”. you just gotta do it.”

“i never intended to fall for him.”

“feelings are something we can’t control.”

“fuck. i’m gonna do it.” you say walking out of rossi’s office. the last thing you hear is rossi calling out to you “good luck, kid! not that you need the luck.”

-=+=-

you waited until the work day was over cause you didn’t want to make it very awkward in case you were rejected, which would very likely happen according to your calculations (you tend to distort your brain and imagine that the worst will happen for any situation). the odds of you being rejected were quite high so, you were just taking safety precautions. and if he still ended up rejecting you, you had it all planned. you would transfer to another branch. it’s not the best plan but you never claimed to be the brightest.

most of the team had already left for the day, so it was just you and spence standing waiting for the elevator, just talking about the paperwork you guys had worked on today. the elevator dinged, indicating it had arrived and the doors opened.

as you two stepped in, you took in a deep breathe and faced spencer.

“hey” you’d said.

“hey” he said, smiling shyly.

“so i’m gonna tell you something and i need you to let me finish before you say anything.”

“alright, i’m listening.”

“spence, i really like you, i mean really like you, so go ahead and reject me. i'm a big girl, i can take it. also you don’t have to say anything now.” you said at lightning speed, squeezing your eyes shut, afraid to look at him.

“y/n?” he asked as you felt his finger lightly lift your chin up.

“open your eyes, y/n”

you did as he said.

“i have something to tell you too.” he admitted, dropping his hand from your chin and shoving them into his pockets. your eyebrows were scrunched up a bit, hopeful of what his response would be, “i’ve never felt a connection with anyone before like this. I know that’s not surprising considering my awkwardness around people and my need to always correct people when they’re wrong and the fact that I shove myself into my job so much but i’ve dreamt of kissing you and feeling like i was on cloud 9. i started to notice when morgan kept calling me out for always watching you. and then i kept having dreams about you. not like any weird or sexual dreams or anything. just dreams where we hung out. just being near you. but i definitely want to see how this goes.”

“oh thank fuck” you said letting out an exasperated breathe.

that had made you both laugh. you felt like so much weight had been lifted off your shoulders.

“so” spence has started, exaggerating the length of the word.

“so”

“do you wanna like, hang out now? we could go get a drink or something. or if you want to wait and stuff then we can do that.” he’d said, almost stumbling over his words.

“id love to get a drink, spence.” you smiled at him.

and he smiled back.

at the bar, you two mostly forgot about your drinks and basket of fries as you were so caught up in each others company. you spent the night talking and laughing. you laugh so much, you were sure you were going to have abs in the morning. you’d never felt so happy. he made you forget about all your worries. he was unbelievably amazing that it was hard for you to believe that he existed and that he liked you back.

you two stayed until the bar almost closed for the night. he walked you home and you two kept talking on the walk. once you two had reached your door, you stood in front of him, not wanting the night to end.

“thanks for the drinks. i had a great time.” you said to him

“thanks for joining me. i had a great time too. um, do you think we could keep this on the down low for now? i don’t want everyone breathing down our necks at work and stuff. and i just wanna enjoy us for a bit.”

“yeah, of course. i’ll see you at work tomorrow. goodnight, spence.” you said as you walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek, making both your cheeks turn bright red.

“goodnight, y/n”

-=+=-

the past few months have been amazing. you and spence have been doing amazing as a team, not just at work. so many nights were spent together, either in complete silence or going on stupid late night adventures aka going down to the gas station across the street from your apartment to get snacks. you were so grateful for him and you were head over heels for him. you never thought you could feel this way for someone. you guys had of course had some ups and downs, mostly due to you and your mental health but you always got through it together, and for that you were forever grateful. he was different to anyone you’d ever met. he actually wanted to learn about the things you struggle with and wanted to learn what were ways he could help you. and after a really bad episode, you helped you breathe and told you he’d stay with you no matter what battles you two would have to face, cause he knew in the end, you two would end up the winners. it was insane to think someone so amazing would be able to love the mess you are, but he somehow does.

until he started to distance himself. it started after a specific incident when you had said something that came off wrong when he’d already had a bad day. after that, you could see it in the way he would interact with you. his speech and body language had changed towards you. his messages became a lot drier, even if you were verbally talking, he’d seem so disinterested, it was disheartening. you wanted to fix things but you didn’t know how. so you decided to arrange a nice little date night for the both of you, so you could show him how much you loved him and to talk things out. you even wrote down a little letter to tell him how grateful you are for him.

when you entered the office to tell him about the plan, he was on the phone so you waited behind him, waiting for the call to end. you didn’t mean to but you eavesdropped a bit, he seemed like his old happy self when he was on the phone, and you overheard a name, “maeve”.

you decided to walk away cause the call seemed to be taking a while. you walked towards morgan’s desk, where he was sitting and talking to pen.

“hey, what’s going on with you?” morgan had asked as soon as you walked up.

“nothing much, just waiting for spence to finish his call so i can talk to him about something.”

“oh yeah, he’s been on his phone a lot lately.” morgan had said.

“really? do you know why?”

“there’s this girl named maeve that he’s been talking about nonstop. he seems really infatuated with her, it’s nice to see him this way.” pen had said.

it was at that moment that all those bad feelings came back. your heart felt as if it was being grabbed out of your chest, just to be bitten into and shredded to pieces.

“i gotta go.” was all you said before you walked away from morgan’s desk.

you walked over to your desk and grabbed your stuff before walking to rossi’s office door and telling him you were leaving early.

“you alright, kid?”

“yeah, i just forgot something.” you said as you spread the fakest smile on your face.

you walked out the office and looked back at spence, hoping he’d walk after you to check on you. but he was so caught up in his phone call that he didn’t notice you leave.

you walked out to your car trying to keep the tears at bay. you ripped up the letter you’d written for him.

was it all a lie?

did he really mean those things he said to you?

was he playing you the whole time?

or did he just change his mind?

you messed up again.

you made mistake after mistake and he finally got tired of you.

he was the best but you were the worst.

you’re wrong again, about being lovable, cause you’re not.

it’s the way life goes.

it’ll never end.

you felt like pink cherry blossom petals that were left on the ground. loved and cherished when in the trees, awed at when falling, then left discarded and forgotten on the ground once you were no longer attached to the thing that gave you life. always being stomped over and discarded. never to be seen or loved again. the way it’s always been and the way it’ll always be.

[uvonobu]

Some thoughts abt the new chapters cause they come out soon and I’m gonna die

(Not predictions, just me yapping)

okay dawg. So we all know the phantom troupe members are almost DEFINITELY gonna die. So I’m gonna yap abt what I need to see from them before they die bc if they all die stupid anti climatic deaths I’m gonna CRASH OUT

So I’ve known Shizuku and Nobunaga were gonna die from the start. With Shizuku, I’ve prepared myself for her death. So I won’t crash out THAT bad. Though, I really hope we get some dialogue about why she joined the troupe. I’m calling it right now, it’s gonna be that she joined the troupe because she wanted meteor city reforms but the useless fucking village elders don’t do shit so joined the only group that had actually made changes in meteor city. Yes, she knew what she was getting into, and yes, she knows they aren’t heroes. But their influence is super important to meteor city and I think it’d also be a good way to show the troupe’s relationship with the meteorians in a way that doesn’t feel forced. Plus it’d also flesh out Shizuku’s character more. Two birds with one stone pls hear my cries Togashi pleas

With Nobunaga, I’ve also accepted his death. Though there are certain things I need to see before he dies to be fully okay with it. For example, seeing his hatsu. If he dies without us seeing his hatsu, I’m crashing out. Actually, yk what’s worse? If we see his hatsu and it’s FUCKING STUPID. LIKE. DAWG. WE’VE WAITED YEARS TO SEE NOBUNAGA’S HASTU AND UR GONNA TELL ME ITS SRSLY SOME DUMB ASS SHIT. BRO. I KNOW HES AN ENHANCER BUT CMON…. I’ll forgive both of these things if Nobunaga gets to talk or think about Uvo one last time before his death. You guys know how I am…. Rrrrr… uvonaga….. but overall, if he dies in an anticlimactic way at the hands of hisoka I wont crash out THAT bad. I’ll be annoyed, but I could handle it

Now…. There’s a theory going around that Nobunaga might go by himself to fight Kurapika if he learns he’s on the boat. And I’m not here to talk about the logistics of that, but if that DOES happen, ohbmy god. Nobunaga straying from their mission to kill Hisoka so he can kill the chain user would be SO . OH MY GOD. It would be so selfish. But oh my god, it would be so good… it would really show how strong their bond really was. Nobunaga dying for Uvo genuinely might make throw up I’m getting nauseous thinking about it god that would be such a perfect way to end their story imgonnadie

Okay sorry moving on . If Bono’s gonna die PLEASE make it later down the line. Pls . I cannot handle his death vro. I mean, like… I’ll understand if he DOES die but I won’t be happy abt it…. We just need some more time with him pls Togashi pls… let the readers form an attachment to him first…. PLEADHHRHEJKSK all I’m asking for with Bono is more time and more dialogue thats all I want

Machi was already set to die. It’s so crazy, but Togashi wanted to kill her off when Hisoka woke up. She’s basically living on overtime right now, she was NOT meant to live this long. So I can’t really be that mad if she does die cause he was already being generous in giving us more time with her

Okay so I actually will not be crashing out if Phinks dies . Like at all. Sorry Phinks I love you but your death would be SO interesting. God, can you imagine Feitan’s reaction to that? I need to see it so bad. I’ll be super sad if he dies but I’ll also be excited because it’ll open the door to so many interesting paths to take the phantom troupe with

Feitan will probably be one of the last to die so I will probably be numb by then. I’ll probably cry cause he’ll die with all his friends gone and he wasn’t able to protect them and that’s rlly sad to think abt so I won’t be crashing out per say but I’ll definitely be depressed

So. With all the other members, I had been thinking about their deaths since I started rewatching hxh. But. It only recently occurred to me that Franklin might die. And !!! I will be brutally murdering all of you😄😄😁 I will kill everyone on tumblr I will kill everyone on TikTok I will definitely kill everyone on twitter and I will kill everyone I know irl you guys will see me on the news for mass murder I will GENUINELY crash out none of you will be safe from my wrath I will have unprecedented levels of pure rage in my system and I will be doing nothing but screaming in agony for multiple days on end you guys will unfortunately have to deal with my posts about her death for at least two weeks straight I will not be nice about this I will grab a gun and air out this fuckass app in memory of Franklin she means so much to me I will cry so hard I will NOT be okay

And Chrollo’s just not dying. I FULLY believe that Hisoka will just leave Chrollo alone after killing all the spiders. Why? Because it’d be so unspeakably cruel. And it would fit the narrative themes so well. I think Chrollo losing his nen and Kurapika saying he’ll have to understand understand the grief of losing the people he loves was foreshadowing... or maybe I’m delusional… but think about how insane that would be guys I fully believe this I’m sticking with it unless I get proven wrong

And that’s all thanks for my listening to my yap sesh if Franklin dies I will livestream viral rope and chair challenge😁😁😁😁😁😁

[jfouler]

things i’ve heard at school - sentence starters? do as you like

“there are no dumb questions, just the dumb people that ask them.”

“[name], no one likes you.”

"whats that really scary hour? is it three?"

“that’s so scary. i will not be able to sleep for weeks.”

“hip bones can kill people.”

“there is nothing worth celebrating right now.”

“i wanna be happy, but i can’t.”

“i will carve you like a pumpkin.”

“i was cooking pizza and thought of you.”

“i like blood. everyone likes blood.”

“i risked my life to fix it.”

“we’ll get more torture- i mean, practice, later.”

“birds don’t mess around.”

“stop this madness.”

“a pathetic old man. that’s your future.”

"kids, have you seen my glock?"

"comedy is not that different from horror."

"yes, penguins die. that's pretty sad."

"it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission."

"someone's gonna get shanked."

"it wasn't a kid. it was a grown man."

"are your parents rich?"

"i don't know how 'lit' things are today."

"at the end of the day, you can do nothing but cry."

"i have your mom's number on speed dial."

"i might be stupid, but i'm persistent."

"it smells like high school girl in here."

"oh my god, what if we domesticated bears?"

"do stupid shit safely."

"i have big calves! it's from jumproping."

"he just wants to see me suffer."

"if you can't be the sharpest tool in the shed, be the biggest hoe."

"you gotta microwave it, girl!"

"we've only been told the story. now we're discovering the story."

"there are a lot of connections between math and music."

"oh, just stop."

"what are you doing here? i mean, how are you doing?"

"without music? impossible. start singing."

"i'm not gonna stay home just because i can't breathe."

"i think if i were a bug, i'd be a bee."

"we have such a complicated relationship."

"good thing i only drink beer."

"i kinda, like, don't like this place anymore."

"is it okay to murder someone in a church?"

"if we all die, then we're all dead."

"there's a new smell in here."

"that's why god created spellcheck."

"you know how i feel about young people."

"what? me getting arrested by six fucking cops?"

"are you just saying that so i stop asking questions?"

"there are lots of people i wish would just be quiet."

"so, we're all dying."

"oh, so you're selfish. adds up."

"would you rather i hate you or be ambivalent towards you?"

"don't be a hero. it won't go well."

[zayray030]

too proud to show

Summary: And this pride was especially in effect when it came to a certain, heart eyed Heartstaybul little shit with his pretty pouty lips, rose cheeks, lightly tanned skin and gorgeous body. Yep. For as long as they live, the NRC students will absolutely refuse to acknowledge the feelings they hold for a certain Ace Trappola.

OR

Ace is oblivious and gorgeous. NRC are prideful and dumb. Who would have thought?

Notes: Sorry for not posting yesterday. Fell sick but also, hope everyone likes this one.

One thing that all of the NRC students shared, apart from magic and emotional repression, was their pridefulness. 

Be it so that they don't ask for help for said emotional problems, that they show off their magic at every given opportunity and how smart they are or just something as simple as continuing to open a jar without help despite struggling immeasurably. They were all prideful one way or another. 

And this pride was especially in effect when it came to a certain, heart eyed Heartstaybul little shit with his pretty pouty lips, rose cheeks, lightly tanned skin and gorgeous body. Yep. For as long as they live, the NRC students will absolutely refuse to acknowledge the feelings they hold for a certain Ace Trappola. 

Now, however, just because they refuse to acknowledge nor act out on their feelings does not mean that they have not made it so painfully and extremely obvious about what they think of the pretty Heartstaybul student. 

*** 

Sebek liked to think of himself as level headed. Sure, some would say that his obsession with protecting Lord Malleus was extreme and overzealous but they were all disposable humans, never able to hold a candle to his greatness and his power 

However, loath as he is to admit it, he was still a teen boy in a school full of teen boys who had a 95% non-heterosexuality rate and he was part of that 95% percent. And he was also the part of the 100% of the school that found Ace Trappola's annoying ass to be pretty. 

So, when the redhead had come up to him and said that the first-year gang was planning a study over at Savanaclaw it had only taken him to look at those pretty pouting lips and those heart stopping eyes for him to agree. 

And that's how he had ended up sitting with both Jack and Epel on either side of him admiring how pretty Ace looked whilst he poked fun at Deuce. 

"C'mon Deucey give it up and ask for help already!" Whined Ace, pouting at Deuce as the blunette tried to push the ginger away. 

"No! I have this!" Argued Deuce and Sebek felt his temperature flare. The moron had the pretty redhead's attention all to himself and he wasn't even going to take advantage of that?! Disgraceful! 

"He's not even going to pretend?" Muttered Epel under his breath, aura murderous as he stared at the blue haired idiot who was too oblivious to notice the privilege he was getting. 

Sebek stared at Deuce and Ace for a moment longer and couldn't help the feeling of relief inside. At least somebody was making it easier for him to capture the heart-eyed student's attention. 

He stared a moment longer before yelling loudly about the stupidity of humans, everyone except Ace understanding the dual meaning behind it and he couldn't help but smirk at Deuce's flushed face. 

*** 

Floyd found Ace pretty, for once doing something that the entirety of the student body agreed on. However, his way of showing his affections was less than usual. 

"Crabby~ Come here and let me squeeze you." The older one whined loudly as basketball practice slowed down to a finish. 

"Considering that we're both sweaty and gross? No thank you." Ace snapped as he turned to the locker rooms to shower, once again showing his lack of self-preservation but also no doubt his bravery in front of his moody upperclassmen. 

“But Crabby looks so cute and squishable right now, I have to squeeze him.” Floyd countered, already advancing towards the unsuspecting redhead who was too busy taking a swig from his water bottle. 

“You say the weirdest shit sometimes, Floyd-senpai.” complained Ace only to yelp when he felt strong arms wrap around him and lift him off the floor. “Put me down!” he demanded, scrambling to hold onto the eel as the older boy began laughing. 

“Not until you let me squeeze you.” Floyd simply told the boy before nuzzling against the redhead's neck. 

Unbeknown to the both of them, the entire club was currently holding itself back from charging at Flod and throwing the merman into the darkest pits of hell for capitalizing on Ace whilst he was flushed, sweating and tired. 

“I’ll kill him.” hissed out a particularly vapid Heartslabyul student and he couldn’t be blamed for it. After all, even when he had Ace in his dorm, he still couldn't get any alone time with him whilst Floyd managed to effortlessly sway Ace into conversation, even with the threat of getting squeezed due to one of the eel’s mood swings. 

Jamil sighed as he watched the rest of the basketball club conjure up a way to murder Floyd and keep it a secret whilst he merely went up the redhead. 

“Come on now, Floyd, let him go so he can go get changed or he’ll catch something.” Jamil scolded the taller as he caught a stumbling Ace was let go by a pouting and irritated Floyd. 

“Way to ruin the fun Sea Snake.” huffed Floyd as He slung an arm over his own shoulder and glared down at the grey eyed boy. “And just when Crabby and I were having fun.”   

“Who was having fun?” asked Ace sarcastically, simply just wanting to take a shower and nap for eternity. 

Jamil chuckled at the redhead's sass and gently ruffled his hair. “Well as one of our up-and-coming basketball stars, we need to make you're in good condition, no?” Jamil pointedly asked, using a hand to gently the cup the others face. 

In the background someone squeezed their bottle to the point that the water splattered out of it and everywhere on the floor. No one paid attention to it, too busy trying to curse Jamil ad Floyd with their minds to care about the possible slip hazard. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Beauty was something that all NRC students strived for, not just Pomefiore. Now, there were different kinds of beauty. There was beauty in following the rules, in a good fight, a good deal, good grades and so on. It just didn’t help that Ace has a beauty like no other. 

“Normally, I would be jealous beyond belief that some upstart first year from a different dorm had all of Vil-Senpais attention.” Commented a 2nd year Pomefiore student, as they observed Vil adjust the dress that Ace was wearing. “However, right now I’m more grateful than anything.” his companion nodded as he discreetly took pictures of the scene in front of him, more focused on trying to capture the pretty redhead more so than the blond model. 

“Amen, brother. Amen.” 

The reason for the two unexpectedly tame reaction is due to the fact that Ace had lost a bet with Epel. Now what might that be you ask? Whether or not Ace could actually play basketball in high heels. Predictably, Ace lost. However, his loss could be attributed to the fact that Epel gave him 7” stiletto heels to play in so there’s also the question of how ethical that bet really was. Not that anyone is complaining of course. That is due to the consequences of Ace losing said bet. 

What were the consequences? Having to wear on outfit by Epel’s request and having to take his position in ballet. Now, of course because Epel is a first year and is like 2 feet tall so it didn’t take long for some third and second years into ahem kindly suggesting a different outfit for him to try. 

See, whilst Epel was irrevocably into Ace, he also wanted to show Vil he could dance just fine dungarees and he would have used Ace to prove his point. However, of course none in his dorm would have allowed such a precious opportunity to go to waste because of some grudge. We are talking about seeing Ace Trappola in whatever outfit they wanted. Who the hell would be stupid enough to ruin that? 

So that is why Ace was currently in white feathered gown. The top part has a sweetheart neckline and was sleeveless with little encrusted gems and small feather and gems on the corset that made the teen almost sparkle. Meanwhile the bottom part was almost entirely feathered and stopping at around mid-thigh. This was the only outfit that Vil hadn’t rejected after deeming all the other ‘perverted’ and a ‘disgrace to the elegancy of Pomefiore’ 

‘Yeah right, blondie.’ thought a mob viciously as they watched Epel reluctantly hand Ace the dress and delighting in the sweet flush of his cheeks. ‘Like you wouldn’t pay to see him in those.’ Almost as if Vil had the ability of telepathy he turned to glare at said mob which caused the other to turn away and whistle innocently. 

“Hey, Umm where’s Rook? I thought he’d be here taking pictures.” asked a mob as they watched Vil teach Ace some of the more basic movements in ballet whilst the redhead observed closely. “Wouldn't he be the first one here? He is the school’s resident stalker.” and the blond wore that as if it was a badge of honour  

“Oh, he’s in the vent.” said a more artistic Pomefiore student. Instead of taking a picture like the rest of his dormmates, he has instead taken to drawing a live portrait. It would be so sweet if there wasn’t certain...ahem discrepancies in the drawing. Mainly the position and certain tasteful alterations to the dress.  

“Huh?!” they all hissed and looked up and there truly was their Vice-lead, in the vents staring down at Ace with a blush on his cheek and a camera in his arms and what looked suspiciously like camera memory holders. Several of them. 

“He kinda makes out obsession look like a sham.” one pouted, arms crossed and annoyed. Before anyone else could agree with their fellow perv- dormmate, there was a loud pointed cough. 

“Is there a particular reason why you are all behind us, taking underhanded photos and drawing such abominations.” Oh, their dorm head was pissed. A vein was throbbing, his hands were clenched and if he was a dragon he would be breathing out fire and smoke from pure rage alone.  

In contrast to Ace, who honestly just looked bored and done with the ordeal. He had his signature pout and he had his arms crossed as he leaned on one of the railings, hips cocked out. 

“Whilst all of you were all being disgraces to this dorm.” ouch. “Ace here has shown magnificent progress.” okay even Vil won’t compliment someone out of pettiness. “Show them, potato.”  Vil demanded, still glaring at those in his dorm. 

Ace rolled his eyes, grateful that Vil can’t see and started doing the moves that Vil had shown him. Now, of course Ace wasn’t a master Ballerina, nowhere close. His pirouette lacked the power, his wobbled were clear and his moves were sloppy and clearly lazy. However, for a beginner who’s had like 30 minutes tops? That was pretty amazing stuff. 

“Can i go now?” the brat asked after he did his final twirl, still looking annoyed at the fact that he had lost a bet to a loophole and has been instructed by Vil for the past 30 minutes.  

“Yes, potato, leave.” Vil waved him off distractedly, still focusing on the perverts in his dorm. When the younger left, giving them all a perfect view of his pretty pale back, Vil asked his dorm a question, “Now, what do you have to say for yourselves.” 

“It was silent for a moment before Rook opened up his mouth, unwantedly by the rest of the room. 

“I do believe he would be more beautiful and perfect split on my cock as he performs one f the moves he learnt today.” the hunter said, smiling with an almost innocent head tilt. Those eyes would look so naive and trustworthy were it not for the words just spoken. It was silent for a minute before Vil took out his magic pen and started firing spells left and right in pure rage. 

‘Ah, at least if i die now i know that Ace is flexible.’ thought a mob as a spell fired at him. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

“More protection.” demanded Riddle as he used multiple spells on the garden hedges to make it so that anyone who wasn’t from this dorm would get immediately strangled by the thorny bushes. 

“No offence, Riddley, but don’t you think this is over T?” asked Cater as he watched, mildly terrified by the number of curses that Riddle knew. 

“They aren’t enough,” muttered Trey darkly as he helped Riddle set more spells. I mean who could blame him. He had just walked in on another Heartslabyul student attempting to take advantage of Ace whilst the boy was bet over a counter to try and reach something, “If anything we need to start making it attack people in the dorm.” 

“And give Ace more triggers for the rose-related PTSD?” Cater asked sarcastically, hands on hips looking at the two as they were insane. “Do you two see yourselves? Acey is more than capable off looking after himself, this is just insulting towards him.” 

“Housewarden! Everyone is daring Ace to eat a banana whole which has whipped cream and icing n it!” Deuce came in yelling, sounding out of breath, clearly have run all the way here. 

The two childhood friends turned to Cater in sync, almost as if to say, ‘You see what we mean now?” before turning to Deuce “Guide us.” Riddel demanded with Trey nodding behind him. 

When those three left the rose bushes, Cater turned to them and took out his own magic pen so that he could increase the length of the bushes so that they can travel farther and strangle perverts at a long distance. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 

“Get off me, Ace!” demanded Jack as he continued doing his push ups. 

On his back was Ace, reading a magazine and taking an occasional sip from his cherry pop. “Why? You’re getting extra practice from me being on your back!” he argued, pouting at being denies his fun. “Are you saying you can’t keep up, Jack?” he teased the wolf. 

“You way the approximate weight of a packet of grapes..” Jack replied innocently, still doing his push ups as if he doesn’t have a whole 16-year-old on his back. “Now get off before I ‘accidentally’ injure you.” 

“I sensed the quotations; Jackie Boy and I’m hurt.” Ace shot back, still refusing to get off the tall teen’s back, instead getting even more comfortable by placing his soda can on Jack’s back as well along with the magazine and admired how the can didn’t even sway or spill. 

“What’s going on here?” joined a new voice to the first years. Jack looked up and there stood Leona with his hand on his hip whilst Ruggie was behind him, looking highly amused by the scene. 

“Ace is being a nuisance and won’t get off,” replied Jack much to Ace’s indignation if the offended gasp was to say anything. 

Ruggie snickered at the wording whilst Leona merely smirked his usual smirk at Jack before turning to the first year who wasn’t a part of his dorm. 

“How about this. Get off Jack and I’ll take you flying.” Leona offered. From far away it might seem like a gesture of good will to the both of them but those who truly knew the lion knew that something else was going on. He was trying to bribe Ace away from the other first year, and trying to get one-on-one touching time with him as well. No way was Ruggie gonna let that happen. 

“Shishishi, Really Leona-san?” asked Ruggie as he raised an eyebrow at his dorm head. “I thought you’d be too sleepy to even fly your own broom.”  

“Well, if I can afford it, why don’t I use it.” Leona shot back, an equally cruel smirk on his face as Ruggie’s. 

Jack assessed the situation, remembered the weight on his back and hatched a plan as the upperclassmen fought over who would ride with Ace. 

“How about Ace flies with the both of you.” Jack suggested, ignoring the heavy stare of betrayal from Ace as he realised Jack was throwing him under the bus. “Then he can say which one is better.” he added which caused Ace to immediately stand up and try and make a break for it. 

“You know what, I just remembered that my housewarden might want something from me, so I'm gonna go now-” he was cut off by Leona grabbing him and throwing him over his shoulder. He let out of a scream of surprise and flailed around before he realised who’s shoulder he was on.  

“You’re precious housewarden can wait. C’mon Ruggie. Later frosh.” Leona waved at Jack as he and Ruggie made their way to the court. 

Jack stared at the door for a while, a sense of guilt festering before he shrugged and continued training. Ace could survive. 

After all, neither were going to risk the fury of the entire school in the off-chance that thye might hurt him. 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

“Yeah, that’s it. Now go to the left and you should win.” 

“Don’t forget to get the level-ups as well. You're a noob so of course you’re going to need all the help you can get.” 

“This coming from the guy who needed help after he got kidnapped by a ghost?” 

“One time!” 

“And during that one time you pissed everyone off so much that the original groups wanted nothing to do with you- WAIT don’t go in there!” 

“Why-Oh. I see. That is why.” 

One of the oddest groups within NRC were all crowded together. There was Malleus, Ace, Lilia and Idia, all around, watching Malleus play on the game console that Ace had given him to try, all of them trying to help him win the level with varying levels of success. Most of them being very low. 

“I don’t understand. If I've already defeated the boss, why do I die again?” asked Malleus, very much looking like he wanted to smash the game to pieces if it wasn’t that Ace would get extremely upset with him if he did so. 

“Look, watch here.” Ace took back his consol to show him how hot do the level. 

They all watched as he expertly manoeuvred through the level, even Idia not making any backhanded comments, instead content on watching how cute Ace looked with his pretty pink tongue poking out ever so slightly in concentration. 

‘So. Fucking. Cute.’ Idia gripped his hoodie even harder to resist the urge to do something dumb. Such as lean over and kiss Ace which would most certainly not only get him punched by said redhead, but also stomped on by the entire school. 

However, Lilia shared no such fears. He wrapped his arms around Ace and leaned in closer from behind, resting his chin on Ace’s shoulder an let out a chuckle. “My, my How often do you play this game, Ace.”   

“A lot!” Ace answered distractedly, completely forgetting that the whole point was to teach Malleus how to play the game, instead choosing to play the game all over again, not that Malleus had any objections to that. “Me and my brother used to play it all the time and he said anytime I beat his high score he would buy me whatever I wanted.”   

Idia’s heart squeezed at how cute Ace looked in his excitement to mention his big brother and he had to take several deep breaths so that his hair didn’t change colour. 

“Could you teach me how to play more, some time?” asked Malleus, enraptures by the redhead, not focusing on the game so much as the other human.  

“Yeah sure! It’s actually easy once you get the hands of it! You’ll be semi-decent in no time!” teased Ace, smiling up at the fae. 

Malleus stared at the pretty smile before muttering under his breath. “I wish I don’t”   

“What was that?” Ace asked tilting his head. 

“Yeah, what was that?” joined Idia and Lilia in to stir the pot. 

“I said, can't wait.” Malleus answered the two with gritted teeth before looking back down at Ace. “Now could you show me this level again.” 

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So, yes, whilst the people in NRC will never admit to the feels they have for the redhead, hey can damn well show how they feel. 

And that’s better than nothing, right? 

*Clown-bus noises in the back.* 

[clowningaroundmars]

thanks to the amazing @starcut-sand for the inspo, i now present to you all... a new multi-chapter adventure! this time featuring our beloved gwen stacy and miles42 :)

no, it's not a ship fic lol but i hope to keep you all entertained nonetheless

this one will update much faster since i've plotted it all out and have drafts written already. so stay tuned for new updates coming soon!

general content warnings: canon-typical violence, mentions of blood, kidnapping, drugs, poisoning, death, bullets and explosions, teenagers being teenagers

without further ado, let's get into it!

part 1 of 4 >>

Gwen woke up in a small, dark room not knowing how much time had passed since she was knocked out cold.

And she knew she was knocked out cold, of course, because even she knew never to take a cat-nap in the middle of a mission.

That she was on currently… if memory served her correctly.

Slowly, painstakingly-- with knives in her ribs and her left shoulder still sore from her earlier encounter-- she sat up. Flicked through her watch to make double-sure that the migraine throbbing in her brain wasn’t tricking her into a vivid hallucination of some kind.

Earth-42 stared right back at her, bright green digital letters dancing and blurring in and out right before her very eyes. When she reached up to touch her forehead in a spot that itched, her glove came away with a bit of dried blood on the white fabric.

Shit.

Gwen could not let Jessica down under any circumstances, especially since this was her first mission since… well, since Miles Morales from earth-1610 came in and single-handedly caused the collapse of the Spider Society as everyone knew it.

Which wasn’t really a bad thing in the end, but it did mean that poor Jess had to step up as the leader shortly after Miguel was forcibly dethroned.

“I’m the interim leader right now,” she would say to anyone who called her “boss” or “CEO” or any variation of the word. The poor woman already had enough on her plate as it was with a newborn and a new family life to tend to, so Gwen understood 100%.

It was also why the pressure was on her shoulders to complete this one tiny, manageable task that was given to her.

Gwen wasn’t stupid. She knew she was on a sort of probationary period after her first blunder on earth-1610. And the fact that she turned her back on the Society to break a couple of rules, help Miles, save the multiverse... well, all of that didn't help matters much.

She ignored the looks cast her way every now and then by other Spiders when visiting HQ, but she knew. She tallied up those glances whether anyone knew of it or not.

But then there was also the stupid feeling of… sentimentality hanging in the air, keeping her chained to the Society when most of her other Spider friends had already abandoned the group.

Yeah, her relationship with her father was… repaired, for the most part. But damn it if she didn’t take a liking to Jessica Drew, too! Sue her.

So here she was, on a mission to visit earth-42 and investigate an anomaly that seemed to threaten the very fabric of space and time. Again.

Gwen was already starting to regret her very dumb, not-very-well-thought out decision to volunteer for this one, though.

No time to complain right now though. We’ve got a problem to solve, Gwen mused, forcing her annoyance, frustration, and panic deep down for the moment.

Her aching brain switched over to Work Mode once again, and she immediately slid into compartmentalizing and sorting every bit of detail that she could manage to remember in the present moment.

Her head was bleeding and throbbing, which meant she sustained a brain injury of some kind. She wobbled unsteadily to her feet, wiggling them and checking on her balance. Her head complained louder, but she seemed to be able to walk just fine.

Okay. Good. It wasn’t a bad injury-- and if it was, it seemed her enhanced healing factor already took care of the majority of it in her sleep.

Alright, time to examine her surroundings now.

While she did so, she found it pretty irritating that while her injury didn’t put her out of commission, it seemed to wipe her entire short-term memory instead.

She eventually sat down on a crate in the corner of the room that she was imprisoned in and with her head in her hands, started sorting even harder through her mental files.

… Nothing.

Well, nothing past the memory of flying through the designated portal she opened back in Jess’s office shortly after receiving her mission assignment. And then landing on top of a familiar-but-not-so-familiar building on earth-42's Brooklyn.

She vaguely remembered the late evening sunset, almost choked out by the various plumes of smoke reaching up to the heavens from the fires that still raged on in parts of the city.

... And then? Nothing else.

Gwen remembered how it was like when earth-1610’s Miles-- her Miles-- ended up in this strange world for the first time, a time that seemed like it was eons ago to Gwen, but couldn’t have been more than a few months ago. The fires were much more numerous, news helicopters everywhere and crime seemingly never-ending.

She couldn’t speak on the crime rates per se, but the place looked a little bit less like the mess she and her Spider Band stumbled into at first.

She distinctly remembered thinking to herself-- before swinging down and heading towards the reports of the anomalies-- that she was glad that the Prowlers seemed to get some things under control. If it was them battling the crime in the first place, that is.

But now there was no time for such thoughts. Wherever the Prowlers happened to be now, they were most likely nowhere near her location. Calling Miles-42 up on her watch would be… distasteful, especially this early in the game.

Especially when she had no idea if he was even available or not. Hm. Maybe she should’ve let Jess ping him and let him know of her arrival as per the usual protocol, but. Oh well.

Too late for that now.

So she stood up again, massaged her shoulder and rolled her neck, and blinked the stars out of her eyes. Time to get to work, for real this time.

She eventually happened upon a door that seemed to lead to the outside, which was really well-hidden against the four walls that enclosed her inside.

The room she was held in wasn’t very big, but it was dark. There was only one tiny little window high up near the ceiling that offered a glimpse up into the night sky beyond.

So it was well past sunset… better than not knowing anything at all, right?

The exit was seemingly hard to get out of, unfortunately. Try as she might, Gwen’s strength alone couldn’t get the giant metal door open. She pushed and pulled on the edges, tried sliding it left and right, tried kicking at it. It didn’t budge.

Whoever trapped her in this… storage closet seemed to know exactly what they were doing, who they were dealing with… whoever they happened to be.

Sinister laughing echoed in the back of her mind as she recalled her run-in with the bad guy but… couldn’t for the life of her remember who he was! So frustrating!

Still, this was earth-42. The baddie could’ve been anyone at all, anyone from the Sinister Six Cartel that she knew still held power on the streets here.

Even with their power slowly slipping from their collective grasps, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that one of those assholes still owned a high-security compound out in the middle of nowhere. It also wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for one of them to have enough tranquilizers to knock out ten elephants, and use that drug on her to drag her out here.

For all Gwen knew, she was probably miles and miles away from Brooklyn, too. Just great.

No time to despair. Time to concentrate.

Okay, so she couldn’t really get past this gigantic metal door that seemed to be made of some titanium alloy or whatever. That left the small space up high on the wall that probably served as ventilation for the room, only sporting thick metal bars to prevent things from getting in… or out.

Gwen quickly scaled the wall and eyed the dimensions of the space before deciding that if she got the metal grating off of the concrete wall, she might be able to squeeze her shoulders through and possibly achieve freedom.

Assuming as well, of course, that the security in this building was easy to get past.

But she would rather take her chances with evil police-drones and bumbling goons than sit another minute in this prison waiting to see who exactly captured her.

Gwen got to work, using her super-strength to painstakingly detach the grates corner by corner, trying to stay as quiet as possible. She bent a few bars in the process, but what was a little property damage to a Spiderperson? No big deal.

If the bad guy who kidnapped me wanted his compound to be spotless and damage-free, he shouldn’t have kidnapped me in the first place, Gwen reasoned.

After what felt like hours, the grating was off. She was free! Now all she had to do was--

Gwen’s heart almost leaped out of her throat and into her mask when glowing purple and white eyes suddenly came into view. They narrowed into slits.

“Jesus Chr--!!! What the…” her brain fully booted up this time, taking a second to stare right back into the glowing eyes of...

“Miles?” She gasped, once it hit her.

The glowing eyes blinked once before finally nodding at her. He raised a metal claw to his mask’s mouth in a universally-recognizable gesture.

Shhhhh.

Gwen’s own giant white eyes blinked back at him before shifting out of the way to allow Miles to extend a begauntleted arm into the room through the window and shoot out… something.

A spark of purple lit the room up, and shortly after, a clattering of glass and plastic resonated through the room before the place fell deathly quiet once more.

“There was a camera in there with you, most likely recording audio, too,” Miles offered as an explanation.

“… Oh. Well, thanks.” Gwen said awkwardly.

So she was wrong. Somehow, in the middle of the night in this odd prison she woke up in, Miles Morales happened to find her anyhow.

She wasn’t used to… this other Miles, and they hadn’t spoken much after their first meeting months ago.

He would join the Spider Band on their own missions sparingly. As far as she knew, only 1610’s Miles hung out with him with any sort of regularity. The kid was a complete mystery to everyone else otherwise, and whenever he was brought up around 1610, the topic was usually brushed off as casually as possible.

Gwen had no clue why 42’s Miles didn’t seem to take a liking to any of the members of their little motley crew. She figured he probably had a hard time keeping up with super-powered heroes and just left it at that, even though from what she could see of their encounters-- however far and few between they were-- the kid seemed to have talent. He was able to keep up with them on most days without barely breaking a sweat.

So all in all, a total mystery to her. Even if this guy shared the same face as her best friend and ally Miles Morales, he... moved differently. Acted differently. Like Miles Morales, but in a different font.

He started to shimmy his shoulders into the room to get past the tight constraints of the window. Gwen stared at him with a cocked head the entire time.

He used his sneakers to cling onto the wall for a little bit, reaching right back out of the window once inside. He pulled in a backpack through the opening and promptly dropped down onto the cold hard floor of the room.

“Uh, hi? Wait. Weren’t we supposed to both escape through that window instead of you, y’know, coming inside?”

Miles-- well, 42--shook his head as he threw his pack back on in one swift motion. “I checked the perimeters, and we’re a long, long ways away from the city. Even if we managed to get past the millions of goons and cameras everywhere, they got dogs doing night shifts out in the woods.”

Gwen’s heart sank. Shit. Her earlier thoughts were coming true. They were far away from Brooklyn, which complicated their escape plans even more.

“I mean… ugh, I-- we can climb the trees! Right? If we just--”

“The guards, Gwen. They got guns loaded up with bullets. But you know what I got? A plan.”

Gwen blinked back at 42 yet again. “You do?”

42 took confident steps back as he put some distance between them and then triple-tapped the side of his mechanical mask. Gwen watched with awe as the front of the mask sectioned itself up and off of his head, revealing a laser-focused expression on Miles’ handsome face-- er, his regular, normal, totally-not-good-looking face!

From somewhere on his mask, a bright purple hologram was projected between them, suspended in mid-air. The lights cast the entire room in a hazy purple glow.

The hologram projected a 3D blueprint-like map of the entire building-- all 5 stories of it. Each floor was meticulously detailed, down to the various entrances and exits and relative dimensions of the many, many rooms the building held.

42 tapped his mask again, this time on the chin, and a maze-like structure materialized, all of it hovering on top of each other and weaving themselves in between the floors… a maze-like structure that seemed very, very familiar.

“Vents!” Gwen snapped her fingers once she recognized them. “You have the blueprints of all the ventilation shafts in the building!”

42 nodded, the projection bobbing along with his movements. “Yeah, I do. I’m a Prowler, right? We always stay prepared.”

Gwen squinted at him. “I guess...? How’d you get stuck in this place if you’re always prepared, then? Did you get kidnapped too?”

“Nah,” 42 answered easily, a corner of his mouth quirking up for a split second, “I followed you here.”

Gwen blinked at him for what seemed to be the umpteenth time. "What."

42 sighed. “You got knocked out by this dimension’s Doctor Octopus. He threw you into the back of a van and ordered his goon squad to bring you back up here, to a secret location he’s got surrounded by energy dampeners and signal blockers. Most likely? He knows you’re not from this dimension and wants to experiment on you. But me? I’m here ‘cause me and my uncle have been lookin’ for this place for months. It’s… top-secret, this compound. Classified.”

“Oh. How did… how did you know he’d bring me to the place you and your uncle have been looking for this whole time? What if he brought me to another building?”

42 smirked, the purple lights of the holograms twinkling in his eyes. “Doc’s assets are being… uh, slowly compromised by us with the underground resistance. Not many places for him to throw his unwilling science experiments into nowadays.”

So it wasn’t just Gwen’s imagination. This dimension really has been steadily cleaned up by the Prowlers and their freedom-fighting allies. Well, that was good to hear. Still didn’t provide much relief for their current situation considering this was Doctor Octopus they were talking about here, but it was still nice to know.

“Well. That’s great to hear, then. What’s the rest of your plan, after ducking out of here through the vents?”

42’s mask re-formed back onto his face and the glowing purple and white eyes came back online. “We’re not ducking through the vents. Well, yet. I came here on my own mission and I gotta complete it before leaving.”

Gwen sighed softly. “Which would be...?”

Getting the whole story out of this version of Miles was like pulling teeth! Was it always going to be like this? Because if so, this wasn’t going to be a very easy mission to pull off after all.

“I can get you out of here first, if you want,” 42 glowered at her, voice distorting behind his mask’s voice-changing technology. His tone seemed impatient, too. “I can stay behind ‘til I’m done.”

Gwen shifted her weight onto one leg. “No, not a chance. I have to stay here and make sure Doc Ock doesn’t turn you into minced meat. Plus, you’re the one who has all the blueprints and cool glowing tech thingies. I’m sticking with you until we can both get out of here!”

This seemed to satisfy 42, because he gave her one unreadable nod in her direction. “… If you’re sure, then let’s go.”

He moved swiftly, much more gracefully than Gwen was used to seeing a Miles move. He walked almost silently, crouching down near one side of the wide metal sliding door thing that Gwen was trying to unsuccessfully pry open earlier.

He reached back into his gear that was saddled on his back and pulled out what seemed to be a small metal object with tiny purple lights on the outer edge. It attached itself onto the door and then 42 was sliding a hidden panel that Gwen had completely missed.

Gwen eventually sidled up to him and clasped her hands behind her back. “I see we’re sticking real well to the branding here. Purple lights, purple holograms… very cool,” was her lame attempt at lightening the mood.

“Yeah, it’s a family thing,” 42 muttered as he worked on… what seemed like some electrical circuitry built into the door. It glowed a soft green. “Been passed down for a couple of generations.”

Gwen hummed. “Oh, I see.”

A beat of silence as 42 continued his work.

Gwen checked her watch once more as she leaned on a wall. “Soooo… should I be doing something while you… y’know…?”

“Yeah, you should be quiet.” 42 answered.

“Ouch.” Gwen replied back as flatly as she could. “Look. I don’t wanna step all on your toes or anything while you do this whole… Prowling thing, but we’re a two-man team here! I’m at the very least trying to make conversation,”

“Okay, sure,” 42 replied easily, never taking his eyes off of his task. “Why are you in my dimension in the first place? Since you like to talk so much, maybe you can tell me that.”

Gwen sighed loudly. Great. Here she was trapped in a bad guy’s compound in the middle of who-knows-where, with the meanest Miles in the entirety of the multiverse. Just her luck.

“I was sent here on a mission. By Jessica. You know, the other other Spiderwoman? Who’s now in charge of the Spider Society, by the way? Yeah, we detected anomalies here in this dimension and she sent me to check it out. But… well, I kinda already screwed that up so I guess I can go and kiss my Society membership goodbye for good this time. Happy?”

42 glanced up at her then, his mask as unreadable as ever, the darkness enshrouding much of his body language. He slowly stood up and backed up, silently gazing at Gwen all the while.

She stood there glaring at him with her arms crossed.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m happy.” 42 finally replied coolly. “Now keep quiet, we don’t know if there are guards out here on patrol. My mask is still calibrating its infrared heat sensors so I can’t see ‘em yet.”

Infrared heat sensors? God, is this kid packed to the teeth with high-tech spy gadgetry or what?

Gwen begrudgingly did as she was told, taking a couple of steps back as 42 lowered the brightness of his mask’s glow.

The door rumbled open with a mechanic hum, and that’s when it hit her; Gwen couldn’t have possibly gotten the door open by herself, because it wasn’t just locked… it was hooked up to a main power source and sealed that way.

Damn. Looks like she really did need to rely on this guy to escape this place, after all.

Well then.

They poked their heads out of the dark room and quietly surveyed the expansive maze-like hallways of the compound. Pipes running the entire length of the ceiling as far as they could see told them both everything they needed to know.

42 took a quick step back to update his mask’s digital blueprint and map out exactly where they were.

Gwen glanced back at him. “What’re you doing now?”

“I'm marking where we are...” He then drops his voice to a near whisper, eyes still methodically scanning the area around them. "This compound's built into the side of a steep hill, which is how I climbed in. We must be on the north side, then."

He tapped his mechanical claws on the tip of his chin and started thinking aloud. “Which means… what I’m lookin’ for has to be underneath the ground, towards the south. I’m lookin’ for a room not on the blueprints. And... and I think I know exactly where to start.”

“You think you know? I thought you had a plan!”

“I do,” 42 threw back. “An escape plan. But you’re stickin’ with me, so now we’re gonna do some Prowlering. Unless you changed your mind?”

Oh, right. This game. Well, this kid wasn’t getting rid of her that easily, that was for sure.

“Oh no, no. Just making sure you’re capable of getting out of here, is all,” she offered innocently.

42 might’ve rolled his eyes behind his mask, but it was hard to tell.

Together, they moved through the halls as silently as possible, straining their ears for any sign of human life-- or robot life, really-- as they quickly made their way down several wide corridors.

All of the halls started blurring together since they all looked completely identical to Gwen, save for the numbers on the various doors they passed by changing and getting smaller as they advanced.

After several minutes had passed, Gwen wanted to open her mouth and ask 42 where exactly they were heading to since it didn’t seem like their trip was even coming anywhere close to an end, when he suddenly grabbed her and pulled her around a corner they had just walked past seconds earlier.

Gwen made a slight noise of confusion and then sucked in a breath when the sound of metal clanging and machines whirring echoed all around them. 42 was closest to the corner, head turned over to where she suspected the intruders were coming from.

Sure enough, a pair of heavy work boots stamped gracelessly down the halls and the casual back-and-forth between the men that suddenly came into view could be heard more clearly.

“… Can’t believe he’s got us down here working doubles now, man! Sucks,” one of the men grumbled as they made their way past the two vigilantes and opened yet another giant metal door with a keycard.

Gwen’s vision zeroed in on it as the man reached behind him to tuck it back into his pocket, and her split-second reflexes allowed her to time her web just right.

She snagged the card and held a breath as the door whirred shut right behind the men, both of them none the wiser.

“Whew,” she said after a second of tense waiting, and smirked at 42 who held a metal claw out for the keycard. “Look who’s got a plan now! Aren't you glad I stuck around?”

42 chuckled, the sound warbling slightly under his voice modulator. “Yeah, that was pretty cool. I can admit that. Now that we got this, we might be able to use it to get into the room I wanna get into once we find it.”

“Right,” Gwen pipes up once they continue their descent deeper into the bowels of the compound, “about that. You never told me what it is that you came here to find. In fact, you’ve been pretty cagey this entire time. Like, about everything.”

42 made an undecipherable sound. “Uh, yeah. This is my recon mission, not yours. You’re not even from this dimension, this doesn’t really concern you.”

Gwen grunted. “Gee thanks. If that’s how you feel, then I’ll be having my keycard back!”

42 shook his head and laughed. “I didn’t mean it like that, man. I meant… just don’t worry about it. It’s info we’re looking for to eventually take down Doc Ock. If I said it out loud here, it might jeopardize this whole thing me and Aaron have planned. I'm in work mode right now, I'm sure you get it,”

Gwen relaxed a bit more. In a way, she did get it. She even understood 42’s hesitance to have her aboard to work with him, since working on group projects wasn't exactly on her own list of top ten favorite things… especially when the project itself concerned the very fabric of the space-time continuum.

Gwen was a solo hero, and maybe since 42 was here on his own, he finally graduated into being a solo hero, too.

Actually, on that topic…

“Does your… does your uncle know you’re here, then? If he does, maybe he can help us get out of here?”

42 helped himself to a healthy pause. “Yes, and no. Aaron’s not… here, near the compound. But he does know I’m out on a mission.”

Gwen stared at him. “Sooo… call him? I’m sure he can get past security, right?”

42 laughed yet again, shaking his head. “Guess you didn’t hear me back in the other room when I told you there are blockers all over this compound, huh.”

Gwen cocked an eyebrow at him and their lenses met.

“What I mean is,” 42 continues, “tech down here doesn’t work very well due to all the interference the Doc’s put up to conceal this place. Again, top secret. Super classified. My own mask took a little while to come back online, and some stuff is still… coming back online. Kinda."

“And your communicators wouldn’t happen to also be on the fritz, would they?” Gwen asked, fully knowing the answer she was going to get.

“Mmnnyep, communicator’s offline. I dunno what the hell Doc’s got this place running on, but it’s not electricity. I’m not too concerned about the details, though,”

Here, they came up to a wide metal door marked in bright caution-tape stripes with several warnings plastered on its surface.

“... ’Cause I got my eyes on the prize,” 42 finished, swaggering up to the door’s keycard panel and successfully getting the thing to slide open.

They both fell into fighting stances in case anything behind the door leapt out at them and attacked, but… there was no one and nothing in the spacious cave-like room beyond it.

Nothing except… a humongous collider!

Gwen gasped as she lowered her fists and advanced forward, making her way over thick wires and past computers to get closer to the giant dimension-ripping machine in the center of the room.

It looked… not quite as high-tech as the one in her dimension, or Miles’-- er, 1610’s collider, that is-- but it was completely unmistakable. The form never changes, neither through space nor through time. It was indeed a collider built by none other than the infamous Doctor Octopus, even if it didn’t quite look as close to being complete.

There were still various wires draped on ladders near the edge of the lab, scissor-lifts located below the platforms parked for the night, and several components were missing that seemed to lay underneath odd-looking bulgy sheets on top of several tables nearby. Gwen made her way over to a computer and woke it up, balking at the password-locked screen in front of her eyes.

Damnit. Damnit! It wasn’t just an anomaly that the Society managed to detect… it was the energy signals from this collider, most likely having gone through some initial tests before advancing to this final stage of construction.

If this was it, then Gwen needed to get back to Jess with this information ASAP!

She fiddled with her watch a bit, but it still looked to be on the fritz somehow, not letting her switch to any other dimension or access the other features Hobie had installed into it. Weird.

She straightened up and glanced behind her, hoping that 42 had some kind of tech or knowledge that would help crack this computer open so she could take a look through the files to gauge just how far along this little pet project was… only to find that she was alone.

... Alone?

"Miles?"

Silence. Her heart jumpstarted a bit and started hammering away in her chest as she hurriedly made her way past rows of tables, science equipment, and computer screens of all sizes, only to find a pair of legs sticking out from underneath a weird car-shaped machine set aside in the corner of the gigantic lab.

She stood there for a bit with her hands on her hips, quieting her thoughts and watching as 42 tinkered away at whatever the hell he was tinkering away at.

She eventually kicked a purple Jordan gently and smiled bemusedly at 42 shuffling his way out from under the machine.

“Having fun down there?” She said as casually as she could manage.

42’s mask was off slightly, still framing his face, but now Gwen could see his slightly exasperated expression in full view.

“Yeah, actually, I was.” He gave her a full view of his snarky attitude too, while he was at it.

He laid back down and pushed his way underneath once more.

“Is this gigantic collider in the middle of this room not a huge concern to you at all?”

“Not really.” 42 answered from under the machine.

“Can I ask why? You do know that if the Octopus gets this thing done and booted up, that your entire dimension is at risk of collapsing just like every other dimension that’s had a collider in it before?”

“Really? Ya don't say,” 42 replied sarcastically, clinking and clanking away. The machine rattled a bit. “That’s nowhere near done right now and I gotta prioritize my priorities. I’m getting to root cause of the problem rather than just climbing in here and smashing stuff up.”

“… Are you now?” Gwen deadpanned.

A mighty metallic scraping sound jolted its way through her eardrums suddenly, making Gwen jump slightly. After a second or two, 42 slides out once again with a big sunny grin plastered onto his face, holding up what looks like a small motherboard with a bunch of metal wires still attached to the metal casing it was screwed into. He only wore one gauntlet, she noted.

He quickly took his pack off and got to work inlaying the computer part into a panel in his pack that she had never noticed before.

A total tech marvel that thing was, really. Even Gwen had to make a noise of approval when with a few purposeful jabs and swipes, the whole pack disengaged and unfolded itself open, much like his mask. No tools required.

He made quick work of the task at hand, using one metal gauntlet as a makeshift toolset, his other gloved hand working to set the entire component into the rest of the pack’s inner workings.

Once that seemed to be done, all of the circuitry glowed purple for a beat before going dark once more. 42 tapped at his gauntlet, bringing up more info on the inside of his wrist, which he seemed to approve of.

“All set?” Gwen probed, still standing a little ways away from him, watching as he seemed completely engrossed in his little side-mission.

He reached back under the machine and pulled out his other gauntlet, springing back up once it was in his hands.

“Yeah. Better than all set, ‘cause now my pack’s online! I can use my climbing gear again.” At this, 42 unlatches a reel of rope from behind him, his grappling hook dangling on one end as he swings it in circular motions through the air. “Hell yeah,”

Gwen stared at him once again. “Your climbing gear wasn’t working? How did you climb into my window, then?”

42 gave her a bit of side-eye. "I got other gear besides my rope, you know that, right?"

Gwen huffed, clearly annoyed. "No, actually I don't. I've been following you this whole time and you haven't really been saying much at all,"

42’s mask slid back into place as he rolled his shoulders and readjusted his pack. “You ask too many questions,”

“You don’t provide too many answers,” Gwen bit out dryly. “Seriously, dude, we are in the middle of giant evil lair of some kind with no way to communicate with the outside world and you’re swaggering through this whole ordeal like it’s a walk in the park,” she huffs. “Why can’t you just tell me like, anything?”

They’re both face-to-face now, mask-to-mask, very obviously frustrated with each other if the electricity in the air was as thick as it felt.

Two teenagers butting heads in the middle of a giant lab, trapped in the lair of their greatest enemy… it would embarrassing if it wasn’t so absurd, but here they were, glaring each other down anyways.

“I am telling you things, you just don’t listen! Probably ‘cause you think your powers make you all-powerful and omniscient or something, that you think you don't need to listen to a word I'm saying,” 42’s words dripped with venom. “Seriously, staying with me to make sure I don’t get myself killed? Gimme a damn break. If sticking with me is soooo boring and you know more than I do, you can get yourself up out of here, then.”

Gwen bristled. “Listen here, jerk. I never said that I was better than you. Kinda telling on yourself there, don'tcha think?” She jabbed a finger in his direction. “I was perfectly capable of letting myself out before you fell in here and got us all turned around! I had it on my own, I could've gotten myself out of here ages ago!"

“And who’s stopping you?” 42 threw his hands up in the air. “Use your little spider powers to bust up out of here, and just leave!"

Gwen stepped back, seething. With fists clenched by her sides, she shoots 42 more daggers his way, hoping her mask’s lenses would convey the message.

Wordlessly, she turns around and shoots a web up to one of the ventilation grates high up in the cavernous room, sticking to the wall.

She works the grating off while 42’s Jordans pace right out of the room and into another side room, leaving the lab completely silent.

Fine. If that was how things were going to be, then fine. This was hardly the worst situation Gwen’s ever found herself in, and it most likely wasn't going to be over anytime soon. But she’s gotten herself out of stickier conundrums on her own, so this was just going to be yet another one of life’s little tests. Just a bump in the road.

A small, insignificant little bump.

As Gwen quietly seethed and crawled her way through the ventilation shafts (completely blindly, since she didn’t really bother to memorize the absolute maze that was whatever 42 showed her earlier) she came upon a vent opening that overlooked a room filled with monitors and… guards.

It looked to be a security room not too far from the collider room, and the men inside were armored to the teeth, only slipping off their helmets and masks to chat some shit over takeout containers and coffee cups.

The rest of the room was covered in tv monitors that showed various different CCTV camera feeds, all of them stationary. Most of them were pointing to the outside, though, hardly any of the screens showed views from the basement level’s numerous corridors, curiously enough.

Gwen doubted 42’s earlier claim that this building ran on some other form of power, since she didn’t think it would be very economic on the Octopus’ wallet to buy so many cameras and monitors and computers that ran on alternate power sources.

Maybe… if he was wrong… then maybe she could even use her watch to open up a portal in an empty room somewhere and just peace out!

Tell Jess what she found, because by now she’d pretty much done her job. Leave the rest to a more capable task force put together by the Society and just go back to her normal, boring, definitely not eventful life.

But then… as tempting as the thought was… she’d be leaving 42 behind. 42, sure, but a Miles nonetheless… a friend.

From what she could gather, the poor guy had very few friends, if any at all. If he wasn’t communicating to her properly, maybe isolation from his vigilante work was to blame, rather than a fault of his character.

Gwen propped up her chin in one hand and ruminated on all of these thoughts, arguing with herself over whether she should stay or go. She glanced at her cobbled-up watch, a permanent reminder of her best friend Hobie Brown, and laid on her back to mess with it one more time.

Her thoughts sunk down into the bottom of her stomach as she fiddled with it, continuing to get error messages as she tried to scroll through the various dimensions she knows she’s saved to her little watch, coming up with nothing even when she dared to try and open a portal in the middle of the vent shaft.

Nothing, nada. No dice. No portal whatsoever happened to materialize. It gave small sad beeps instead, really hammering home that… she really was on her own this time.

Damn.

Gwen didn’t know why, but this thought kind of depressed her.

At least on previous missions and patrols in her dimension, she was always acutely aware of how much rested on her own shoulders. She always went in with confidence and some sort of game plan, content enough to just let her quick thinking and powers get her out of any fight, any problem.

But ever since landing here on earth-42, she seemed… discombobulated, not entirely in her element. Everything in this dimension seemed to work against her at every single turn.

She’d have to bring that up to the other Spiders, ask if they’ve ever felt anything like she was feeling before.

If she could get out of this building in the first place, that is…

A loud, jarring alarm jolted her violently out of her wandering thoughts, and she almost hit her head on the ceiling of the vent, rolling over quickly to peer down into the room below her.

The guards were pulling helmets and masks on, scrambling up from their previous positions and pouring out of the security room door as quickly as they could.

In the midst of the sudden chaos, Gwen’s wide eyes honed in on one particular screen, which was pointed directly at the collider room’s interior…

... And directly at earth-42’s Miles Morales himself.