#but the storyline so cringe I couldn’t

[nerdishpursuits]

From GLADdiator

to SADiator

@midniteowlet Or was it from Maximus to Minimus? 😂

[tkomptgoedluv]

watermelon.

icantbelieveiletyougetaway pt.3

pt1. here | pt.2 here | pt.3

joost klein x f! reader

tags: f! reader, non-famous! reader, reader still really needs to see a therapist, established friendship, angst angst and even more angst, did i mention angst?, tooth-rotting fluff, so fluffy it’s honestly a little cringe <3, all characters are dutch and speak in dutch but dialogue is written in english for obvious reasons.

word count: 3,493.

warnings: very brief + vague reference to SA, rpf.

notes: hello!! welcome to pt.3 <3 this is probably the part that i’m most proud of, probably because it weirdly hurt the most to write. a couple fun facts about this part: reader’s coat is heavily based on one i have in real life and absolutely adore. also, i genuinely couldn’t bring myself to touch this wip for two whole days because my personal life started to match up with this storyline and i did not like it! became a little too self-indulgent. anyways — enjoy!! lemme know what you think.

love you all lots 💋

── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ──

in a lot of ways, the whole situation was more or less your own idea of hell — ironic, considering it all started with literally the worst night of your life.

not once did you ever think that you’d be here, that this was how things were gonna go. the fun part? you don’t even know how you got here in the first place. for someone so in the middle of it all, you know surprisingly little about what actually happened, or what you must’ve done wrong.

all you know is that it’s different now. joost is different now.

you still text everyday, a few phone calls here and there, and you’ll see him in person a few times a month or more, but you can still feel it. the subtle lack of emotion in his messages, the only-ever increasing wait times in between responses, the missing details in his stories that you’d still end up hearing from your friends. something, at some point, shifted and joost just didn’t seem to be your joost anymore.

at first, you tried to think nothing of it. you weren’t exactly a stranger to anxiety; it’s always been just a little too easy for you to get lost inside your own head. this also wasn’t the first time that you had fallen down this rabbit hole, suddenly convinced that someone you love doesn’t even like you because they said something in a slightly different tone once.

but then those weird few days where things didn’t feel quite right turned into weeks, and it just didn’t feel like nothing anymore.

you thought it could’ve been the videos because, as predicted, entire montages of the fight found their way onto each and every little corner of the internet. joost could be seen clear as day swinging for him, landing punch after punch until one of his friends would eventually step in. though somehow, the backlash against joost never came. for every clip there was a ‘story-time’ to go right along with it, and every single one explained how joost was just defending ‘this girl that had been attacked by that guy.’

so instead you exhausted yourself asking if everything was alright, just in case there was something else going on that he also hadn’t told you. but there was only so many times that you could ask the same question over and over again, only to get the same answer back.

joost was fine; great even.

so it had to be you. nothing was wrong, nothing bad had happened, it was simply just you that had repelled him all of a sudden. and that was all you could think about whilst you sat in a room surrounded by your closest friends — joost included.

it was someone’s birthday, a friend of a friend who’s name was still unknown to you and yet somehow you still ended up with an invite. aspon was on your left, deep in a conversation with stuntje about some new anime you’d never heard of, and alanis was on your right, asking to see pictures of daan’s latest art piece.

you, of course, were there in between them all, just staring into space. all of the ice in your drink had melted as it sat forgotten about in your hands, and you were fairly confident that you had memorised each and every scratch in the wooden flooring. you were yet to find a better place to look other than the floor, because of course it was joost that had to be sat opposite you.

he had pulled the short straw really, because by the time he came back in from his cigarette outside, the only seat left was one of those awful, plastic fold-up chairs. like the others he too was wrapped up in a conversation of his own, only his included a girl that you’d never seen before, and he was making her laugh a lot.

you didn’t have a single right to absolutely despise what it was that you were seeing, but still your skin felt hot and itchy, and tears burned behind your eyes. despite arriving together in your group and being seated a measly three feet away from each other, joost was yet to even glance in your direction, let alone talk to you. the blatant avoidance was unbearable; the new ‘you’ that he was talking to was even worse.

but with the anger came the shame, because really, you had no excuse to be feeling like this. two strangers with mutual friends, talking with one another at a house party of all places, wasn’t exactly incriminating. they also weren’t touching or even flirting for that matter — from what you could hear, their conversation seemed limited to small anecdotes about the people in common they both knew.

you weren’t being fair, you weren’t being reasonable; there was no excuse for the tightness in your chest.

without a word, you got up and made a dash for the balcony; desperate for a cigarette. so desperate in fact, that you didn’t stop to grab your jacket despite the rain bashing against the windows. you just needed the fresh air, needed space away from whatever the fuck was going on in there.

the small roof that the balcony upstairs provided did little to shield you from the rain. your hair quickly fell damp around the sides of your face as the wind brought goosebumps to your arms. you really should’ve stopped to grab your coat, you were soaking now.

but the pure, unbridled relief that you felt when you breathed in the smoke of your cig made it all worth it, though. it was something else to focus on, something to help soothe all of your aches and pains. best of all, it gave you a reason to be by yourself for a while — a moment alone to think, to breathe, a chance to get a fucking grip.

you took another drag of your cigarette.

“think you forgot this, schatje.”

over the sound of the heavy-falling rain and the music from inside, you hadn’t heard the balcony door slide open and shut again.

from the corner of your eye you saw joost standing there, clad in a black gilet and the same adidas track-jacket that you had bought for him two birthdays ago. your coat was in his outstretched hands; a big, red furry thing that almost swallowed you whole every time you put it on.

“yeah…thanks.”

you wanted to cry.

the silence that followed was heavy and awkward; neither of you could even look at each other as you took your jacket from him and slipped it on. whilst you focused on looking outwards towards the skyline, blinking away any tears that threatened to spill, joost busied himself with lighting up a cigarette of his own. it felt like you were standing next to a stranger, and not someone who quite literally knew every single little thing about you.

someone who always picked up the phone when you called; someone whose bed you’ve woken up naked in just a few too many times to count.

“you, uh, you doing okay?”

you almost choked on your cigarette.

he’d barely even glanced your way all night, too distracted by other female attention to really care that you were there at all, and now he wanted to know how you were doing? oh he had to be joking.

you stubbed out your cig underneath your shoe and went to storm back inside, shoving past him with your shoulder as you did so. you had almost made it too, before he caught you by the arm and gently pulled you back. it really pissed you off how hurt he looked, like this wasn’t all his fault in the first place.

“hey, can we not just talk for a minute? i wanna know what’s been up with you recently. we don’t really talk anymore.”

as hard as you could you pushed him off of you, and then you pushed him once more for good measure. you couldn’t bite it back anymore, couldn’t keep it all from spilling out when your blood was already boiling. if you were to regret it in the morning, you would just blame it on the few drinks you’ve already had.

“and why the fuck do you think that is, joost? tell me.”

a small part of you that you really couldn’t quite understand, genuinely hoped that he would push you back. that he’d get all up in your face, yelling at the top of his lungs, just as angry with you as you were with him. you wanted him to shout, to scream at you about how wrong you were; you wanted to feel crazy for even thinking that something could ever go wrong between the two of you.

you didn’t want him to just…stand there with his tail tucked between his legs, looking like he had already given up on you a long time ago. you found yourself shoving him again, only hard enough to knock him back a step or two this time.

“tell me!”

now more than ever you wished that you could stay angry, that you knew how to hold onto the outrage instead of always just breaking down into pieces. it made you feel so small the way that your voice was cracking; your shouts quickly shrinking into cries. you felt like a child again, begging to understand why everyone always left in the end.

“i just needed to work some stuff out, okay? none of this was meant to happen. i never wanted to make you cry.”

you pressed the heels of your palms into your eyes, the state of your mascara becoming an afterthought, before raking your fingers through your hair. thin strands stuck to the corners of your face and the back of your neck.

“please, tell me what i can do to make it better.”

joost was panicking now, looking a lot like an old dog that somehow knew it was about to be left behind at the shelter. you could see it in the way his hands were shaking and how he couldn’t quite seem to stand still, shifting from one leg to another.

“you can tell me what happened; what changed or what i did wrong. i don’t care.”

from the look on his face, you never would have guessed that all you’d asked him for was the truth; ‘panicked’ was no longer the right word.

“i can’t. i promise, i’ll tell you later but i can’t tell you here. not like this.”

you laughed — you couldn’t help it. three months ago, when you asked him why he was so insistent on doing anything and everything for you, he gave you the exact same line. either he forgot that he’s already used it once before, or he thought you were stupid enough to fall for it all over again; either way, you knew now that ‘later’ was never coming.

before you really knew what you were doing, you were back inside and weaving your way through the small huddles of your friends. a few stared as you began to tread water through the house, a long line of watery footprints following behind you on your way out. you muttered a quiet ‘i’ll see you guys later’ to whoever was listening and in one smooth motion, grabbed your bag from one of the tables and disappeared through the front door, slamming it behind you.

no one tried to stop you. probably for good reason, too, because you could feel the makeup running down your face.

the only good thing to come from looking so sad and drenched from the rain was that nobody on the street stopped to bother you either. not many people were out in this weather anyway, so at most you felt their eyes on you as they passed, a look of pity on their faces. pity for a girl all dressed up for a nice night out, just to be walking home early in tears.

you didn’t want their pity, you just wanted to go home. you wanted your bed and your pyjamas. you wanted a nice warm shower and to try and forget that today ever fucking happened.

you didn’t want joost to be chasing after you.

you didn’t want to hear your name being yelled from down the street by the one person you didn’t want to see right now.

“cmon you always do this! stop running away from everything.”

that was the thing to get you; the one thing that made you stop and turn on the spot.

“oh i’m the one running away? you’re the one that left!”

you met him halfway with steam coming out of your ears, your hands trembling and nose all scrunched up. you were fuming and it seemed as though he was now, too.

“i never went anywhere! you’re making it sound like i disappeared off the face of the earth or something.”

“well that’s what it felt like! what about that don’t you understand?”

you were each taking turns yelling now, oblivious to how loud you were actually being. people were sticking their heads out of their living room windows, morbidly curious about the scene that was unfolding right outside their homes. those that walked by did double-takes and even contemplated getting their phones out to record.

“but i’m here now! and i was ‘here’ back there and you just ran away like you always do!”

“did you really expect me to just stand there and listen to you lie again? all this ‘oh i’ll tell you later’ crap, it’s just bullshit. ever since that night you’ve been different and if what that guy did to me changed how you see me then maybe you’re right, maybe we should stop being whatever the fuck we are.”

joost physically recoiled at your words, his entire demeanour changing to one of hurt.

“what are you..? schatje no, no, it’s nothing like that. fuck, please tell me you don’t really think that.”

how could you not? it was the only thing left for you to think. it wasn’t like you wanted to come to that conclusion or that it was the first one you jumped to, but joost never gave you any other choice. as much as it hurt, it was better than simply not knowing.

something died in him when you nodded — you saw it in his eyes. tears of his own spilled down his cheeks as he rubbed his hands up and down his face, wiping his nose with the inside of his elbow.

“i…i would never; that guy…that wasn’t your fault.”

“then tell me the truth, joost.”

all that adrenaline, all that energy from before was long gone. you weren’t two people arguing in the rain, full of love and anger like something straight out of a romcom anymore. you were just two people standing out in the cold, soaked to the bone, just trying to hold on for a little while longer.

you were still waiting for joost to say something, trying to prepare yourself for the worst. if he was to say that same shit again, that he couldn’t tell you now but would later on, that would be it for you. you’d walk away and not turn back again, not for anything; just like that it would be game over.

but joost wasn’t saying anything, and you couldn’t decide if that was any better or not. he was silent as he took a couple steps towards you, the palms of his hands suddenly cupping either side of your jaw. the pads of his thumbs wiped away all the tears and rain from your eyes and tucked the odd strands of hair behind your ears. not once did he glance away from your gaze, not once did he say something.

it was driving you crazy.

“joost?” you were pleading with him now, desperate for him to say something — do something. the way he was looking at you, it was like you were the only thing he could see. “say something.”

“i love you.”

you blinked, and all of sudden you weren’t quite sure what to do with your hands anymore. it wasn’t the first time joost had said that to you because he says it to everyone, every single one of his friends. but he had never said it to you like that before, with a look in his eyes so heavy you feared that they might fall right out of his head.

“what?” your voice cracked as you spoke. “i don’t understand…what?”

“i love you. that’s what changed.”

a headache was coming, you could feel it. right behind your eyes, you felt a twinge, and then a subtle thumping that made your eyebrows twitch. you just couldn’t wrap your head around it, and the more you tried to make sense of it the more your head hurt.

“i swear to god if this is a fucking joke, if you’re just making this up -”

he shut you up with a kiss.

it wasn’t exactly for the first time or even close to being so, but it felt as though it could’ve been; all soft, gentle, careful. the hands that held either side of your face did so as though you could’ve cracked and shattered at any second. he moved slowly, almost hesitantly, until he felt you turn into mush beneath him. only then did he pull away, a ghost of a smile lingering on his lips.

but you couldn’t let him have it though, could you? couldn’t just let him have the upper hand, just like that. you had to chase it, had to pull him down to your height by the collar of his jacket until your lips could meet his. by the time you were finished, both shaking and breathless, there were faint smudges of red all across his mouth.

“that was so hot; do it again.”

you laughed at his words for not the first time tonight, but now it was only out of pure joy instead of anything else. you laughed because of how out of it joost looked now, his eyes glossed over and lips parted ever so slightly as he panted. you laughed because of how much you did want to do it again and how you felt giddy knowing that joost wanted you to do it again too.

so you did. only this time joost was ready and pounced on you hard enough to knock you back a couple of steps, almost making you slip on the wet pavement. his fingers lost themselves in your hair, gently tugging at the roots as yours gripped onto the nylon of his jacket for dear life, too afraid to let go and risk letting him slip away.

you would have stayed like that with him all night if it wasn’t for the wolf whistle you heard from one of the windows above, followed by the rumble of thunder. the rain was starting to fall harder now, the storm only growing and you didn’t like knowing that people were watching you now.

“we shouldn’t be doing this here — people are looking.”

with his forehead resting against yours, joost simply groaned as he struggled to catch his breath. his hands still cradled the back of your head and his eyes were still squeezed shut.

“don’t care. need you.”

he may as well have been one of the puddles at your feet, the way he couldn’t even form proper sentences anymore. the things you were doing to him right now were criminal, almost cruel, and you were loving every minute of it. proud of it, actually. you might have been mush in his hands, but he was like putty in yours.

“well…maybe you should take me home then, yeah? then you can need me as much as you like.”

joost groaned again, muttering something about how you were ‘going to be the death of him’, and leaned back in. from your nose to your cheeks, to your chin, every inch was peppered with very sweet, very wet kisses.

“have i told you much i love you yet?”

he had, at least a handful of times by now, but not nearly enough as you would’ve liked. so you shrugged, a shit-eating grin plastered across your face as you did so, and stepped back, lacing your fingers with his.

“it’s okay, you can tell me one more time.”

apparently that was way too far for you to go, because after one singular step you were tugged back again and kissed as though joost’s very life depended on it. ironic, considering you were certain that you were both about to be struck by lightning at any moment.

“i love you.”

you figured if that were to happen by some chance, it’d be worth it if it meant staying here with him for just a little while longer.

“i love you too.”

[lilacspider]

TUA should’ve ended after season 2

i am just so kriffing disappointed in this final season. i am disgusted. steve blackman has absolutely zero regard for these characters, their development, and the story. he has no respect for the ACTORS. he threw the entirety of these past three seasons in the trash in just one season. they had so much opportunity and yet he chose to make it a fetish-filled, scandalous, and completely lazy season.

all the vomitting???????? klaus being force fed marigold (which dare i say might’ve made a good storyline for him IF HE WASNT PIMPED OUT AND THEJN NESRLY BURIED ALIVE????) which in turn made him into an alcoholic???

five and lila????? they scrapped fives motivation of saving his family and keeping them together because of his LOVE FOR THEM, all SO HE COULD HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH LILA????? that is probably the biggest mischaracterization altogether. lila would never cheat on diego. they are married. THEY HAVE CHILDREN TOGETHER. it’s NORMAL to have arguments and trouble in a relationship but by no means does it mean there’s room for affairs as a result. it just makes me mad. ritu has known aidan since he was 15, like this is so nasty.

diego being the stereotypical “bad father” for lack of better words because he apparently has no consideration for his family which is NOT TRUE AND IS A HUGE MISCHARACTERIZATION!!????

luther going back to being the guy that no one really listens to because they feel he has nothing of value to offer (it wasn’t super evident but i noticed it which made me sad bc we made so much progress with his character!)???

allison becoming a single mom whose husband, RAYMOND, walked out on her??? that literally makes no sense for raymond or her, yes allison is a strong and independent character but it feels like it’s just stereotype after stereotype.

viktor becoming a womanizer and LEAVING HIS FAMILY BEHIND! all viktor has ever wanted since childhood is to be apart of his family, and they take that away this season??? makes no sense.

dont even get me started on sparrow ben. i have never liked his character he is wayyyy too much of an asshole, but your saying he can’t have common sense??? they turn him into a criminal who is contaminated by this essence that is meant to end the world and ends up making him insanely attracted to the one consistent mystery in this entire show (jennifer/the jennifer incident) and then throw away the entire plot line to just have them end the world. **and then making him and jennifer overly sexually attracted to each other was just straight up weird, where did that even come from?? i had to skip those scenes because it was so kriffing cringe.

because out of no where, abigail had a change of heart. and reginald is somehow one of the only mentally stable characters this season which is new!??? jean and gene were completely and utterly useless. they had no point, the only five i liked in this season is brisket, newspaper, drunk, and season one five. CIA five can leave.

one of the only redeemable moments of this season is the flashback of our brellies. that was good. there were other parts that i liked but that is first that comes to mind. **and the birthday party scene where they reunite. very cute and family vibes. sucks they couldn’t all be together because viktor was straight up kidnapped by some crazy.

and then the subway to different timelines. that could’ve been such a freaking awesome idea and would’ve made a great plot device IF THERE WASN’T ONLY SIX EPISODES AND SOMEONE ELSE WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF WRITING. like why are five and lila the only ones who are aware of this?? this couldn’t have been utilized earlier?? also can we talk more about how ben is an asshole, people focus too much on the attractive aspect of his character (which no offense, i see no appeal to bc the personality is just awful—NO HATE TO JUSTIN H M, he’s fantastic it’s just we did not lose brelly ben for this), like he force fed/tricked EVERYONE into consuming the janky marigold. except klaus because he’s the only smart one there. also good on him for trying maintain sobriety. but still. that is so messed up???? if he had never given anyone the marigold, everything could’ve been fine. they could’ve lived long happy lives in this timeline reggie made.

and then they had david cross, pitch perfect 2 ref, iconic man, play an irrelevant character. i’m so mad. wasted potential right there.

AND! it’s a crime that there is no family dance montage/scene like past seasons. it hurts. **oh and also there being like zero MCR songs is such a slap in the face because if the producers and directors actually listened to the fans opinions and ideas every once in a while, they would know that we’ve been hoping for an MCR song to be included as an homage/reference to Gerard Way.

and then that ending. where they just accept death???? choosing that the world is better off without them??? that is such a lazy end. if they had ten episodes and let gerard way have some sort of say in the writing/directing process, we could’ve had something so good. something so creative and fun and fulfilling. but no. they die and come back as marigolds. **which i personally really liked, out of everything this season i’m not sure why so many people hate the fact they kind of turned into flowers 😭😭 the ending sucked cause it’s so obvious it wasn’t given much thought but it was still sad and seeing the eight marigolds was sweet and gave closure in a sense. as much as it could i guess. **also, the farthest marigold is ben regardless bc brelly ben is dead and sparrow ben doesn’t really consider the brellies as his family. it is not five or klaus or whoever, it is ben. it has to be imo. the two flowers closest together are lila and diego. fight me.**

another thing, all the bad guys having a happy ending? irks me. like they were iconic, but why them and not the brellies? **(while i still agree with the idea of why couldn’t the brellies be happy too, i actually liked the fact that the main villains or side characters had completely different lives had the umbrella academy never existed. like that’s actually crazy sad and really interesting. also two things: is detective patch in that last scene? i’m not sure if she is. and second: why is grace like alive? like she would still be alive, but she was alive in the sixties, so wouldn’t she be like super old by that point in time?? why is she still young? and having kids? the inconsistency is realll)** also i liked the version of i think we’re alone now they used but i think it could’ve been better if they used the tiffany version again 😞

anyway—thank you for reading my rant because i am just so baffled by how horrible this season was. i feel so bad for the cast because even they knew that this season would not be it. that not one true fan of TUA would like it. and it’s sad because this has been such a huge part of their lives and careers as actors. so they did great with what they were given and for that they have my respect.

** signify edits i made — mostly grammatical and clairty edits, and a few of my opinions updated or added on to now that i have had time to really think about what occurred this season.

[and-claudia]

Against All Odds pt. 10 (Joel Miller x fem! reader)

General Warnings for later on: The main story will have an age gap between Joel and the reader (Reader will be 25 once we get to the main storyline), this will also be your warning that it will eventually be an x pregnant reader (if that’s not your jam, I’m sorry) there is also going to be more graphic/trigger parts later on so please always to be sure to read the warnings BEFORE reading. This story will also be 18+ and TO BE ON THE TAGLIST YOU CAN NOT BE AN AGELESS BLOG (i do actually check that) also there first hand full of parts are all prologue so Joel won’t actually be in it for a bit

Warnings for this part: canon typical violence, getting sick, suicide (please do not read if that is triggering!!!)

word count: 3600+

Taglist Sign-Up (read my rules carefully before filling it out)

gif not mine

The bullet caught all of us by surprise and had all of us ducking down as Joel yelled for us to move. We ducked behind an abandoned car to take cover. 

“The fuck is that coming from?” Henry asked. 

“Shut up.” Joel commanded. 

He was closest to the trunk of the car, followed by Ellie, Sam, and Henry, who was closest to the hood. Joel looked at me before giving me a small nod. Then he slowly and carefully turned so he could peer over the car to see if he could spot where the shot had come from. And sure enough, as he peered over it another shot was fired. I knew it hit the car when I heard the glass shatter. Although he was already dropping back down, I reached over and pulled Joel back down out of instinct. I didn’t even see Henry peeking over, but I heard a third shot and saw the sparks from it hitting the metal of the car just beside him. 

“Fuck. Let’s move. Let’s go.” Henry was saying, already grabbing ahold of Sam and standing to run away from where the shots were being fired before anyone could stop him. 

“What are you doin’?!” Joel yelled at them. 

“Getting the fuck out of here!” Henry yelled back before another bullet landed right in front of them, causing them to run back to the car for cover. 

“What do we do?” Henry asked, still holding onto Sam. 

Joel peeked over the hood again just to be met by another shot. When he was tucked back down, he looked at me, and I knew that look. I knew what he was about to do. And I knew I was going to hate every second of it. 

“It’ll be okay, remember?” He whispered just for me to hear before speaking loud enough for our whole group to hear, “Alright. Stay here.” He said, tucking his gun away. 

“What?” Ellie asked. 

“If you don’t move, he’s not gonna hit you.” Joel said matter of factly. 

“I’m going to go around, try to get in the house through the back, and then I’ll take him out.” He said. 

“But if you go out there, he’s gonna kill you.” She argued. 

“No, he won’t.” I said, I honestly wasn’t sure who I was saying that for more, her or myself. 

“Yn’s right. It’s dark, and he has shit aim nobody’s gonna kill me.” Joel said. 

“Then he’s gonna kill us.” She pressed. 

“Do you trust me?” He asked, looking right at her. 

It took a moment, but she gave a nod. That was all it took for Joel to sneak around to the front of the car before taking off running to get out of the street. Every time I heard another shot get fired, I cringed internally. Once I had lost sight of him and could hear the shots hitting further away I stole a moment to look over the trunk of the car. He had disappeared into the treeline, and I couldn’t see him anymore. 

“Just stay low, stay quiet.” I told the others. 

It felt like time had slowed. I was straining my ears to listen for anything that would help me know what was going on. Then, after what felt like a lifetime, I heard yet another shot fired. Only this time, it sounded different. It sounded like a handgun. It had to be Joel’s. I wouldn’t accept any other alternative. There were a few more beats of silence before I heard the faintest sound of an engine. 

“Run!” I heard Joel’s distant voice yell. 

We all stood, and then I saw it. There was a vehicle with bright lights barreling down the road towards us. I could here Joel yelling for us to run still. 

“Shit, we gotta go. NOW!” I yelled at the others as I saw more vehicles, the front one was plowing through the abandoned cars with ease. 

I made sure the others were ahead of me. I could vaguely make out the sounds of the rifle firing again, so I could only assume Joel had picked it up and was now firing at the vehicles behind us. I had tried to shoot my own gun at them, but it was no use. They were too heavily armored and I couldn’t aim well while running and with my wrist being injured. Joel must have landed a good shot because the next time I looked back, they had swerved and crashed into a house. 

When I turned back forward I realized I was now alone. Henry and Sam had split off and Ellie had stumbled a few paces behind me. Just as I went to help her up, the vehicle that had crashed into the house exploded, sending fire high up into the air and making me stumble back as I shielded my eyes from the brightness. 

Once I glanced back to where Ellie had been she was gone. 

“Yn, come on!” I heard Henry yell before I saw him and followed him. 

“Everyone okay?” He asked once we ducked behind a van.

I nodded, and so did the kids. 

“He’s up there! Two and two! Around the back, take him out!” 

I knew they were talking about Joel but I couldn’t worry about him now. I knew he could hold his own. I had to get us out of here. 

“I’m assuming those are Kathleen’s people?” I asked. 

“Yeah…” Henry signed. 

“Dead end, Henry.” I heard a woman, who I could only assume was Kathleen, yell over to us, “Gonna step on out? Save us some time?” 

Nobody dared to make a sound as we could hear dozens of footsteps approaching. 

“No?” She called out, “That’s alright. Doesn’t matter.” 

“I’ll come out!” Henry yelled back, and I looked at him wide-eyed, “Just let the kids and her go!” 

“No. Sorry.” She sounded so condescending, “They’re with the man who killed Bryan. And Sam… well Sam’s with you.” 

“You don’t understand!” He yelled back. 

“But I do. I know why you did what you did. But did you ever stop to think that maybe he was supposed to die?”

“He’s just a fucking kid!” 

“Well, kids die, Henry. They die all the time.” Her words were making my blood boil, “You think the whole world revolves around him? That he’s worth… everything? Well, this is what happens when you fuck with fait.” 

Henry sighed and looked at me. I was already nodding my head, I knew what had to be done. 

“Get them out of here.” 

Ellie began shaking her head. 

“Yes.” Henry said to her. 

“We have to Ellie. Stay with me, okay?” I said, grabbing Sam’s hand. 

“It’s time, Henry. Enough!” She was getting angry. 

Henry took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves before he stood up with his hands up in surrender. Sam went to stand up, too, but I gently pulled him back down and shook my head at him. 

“It ends the way it ends.” Kathleen said before I heard her cocking her gun. 

However, before I could hear it go off, the sound of metal creaking filled the air.  

“What is that?” Ellie asked. 

“I don’t know. Stay quiet.” I said, trying to peer around the van. 

All I could see was the last bit of the massive truck that had hit the house slip beneath the ground. Then the dreadful snarls of Infected began. Fuck. 

Nothing could have ever prepared me for how many came out of that hole in the earth. It was a whole horde. I ducked back behind the van, willing myself not to become paralyzed by the fear. Just then, Henry came back. 

“We can’t stay here.” I said, panic evident in my voice. 

He nodded and with that we took off running for behind the house. It was a clusterfuck of infected and stray bullets flying. I kept my eyes locked in on Ellie, who was in front of me. 

“Watch it!” I yelled just as a couple of infected jumped at her. 

She fell, but Joel must have been watching us because the Infected were quickly shot. I rushed to help her up. 

“There!” She pointed out in front of us. There was a van that had a window cracked open, but other than that, it was sealed up. Ellie would be able to fit through it. 

“Go!” I said, pushing her to run ahead of me, I would find cover somewhere else or try to make it to Joel. 

Then, just faintly over the frenzy around us and the roaring of the fire, I heard a deep rumbling sound. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it couldn’t be good. Once we got to the van I helped Ellie climb through the window. 

“Stay low!” I yelled before turning around. 

I finally saw what was making that rumbling sound. There was a huge Infected that had climbed out. It roared as it charged through people and other Infected. I stared for a moment before Ellie’s voice snapped me out of the trance. 

“Yn, come on!” she yelled. 

Before I could respond to her, I heard Henry yelling for help. I quickly scanned the area and saw him and Sam trapped under a car as Infected surrounded them. 

“I gotta go help them!” I yelled to Ellie before taking off. 

Just as I got there, one of the Infected had grabbed ahold of Henry and was pulling him out. I quickly shot it, and it dropped to the ground. At the same moment, a second one grabbed Sam. However, before I could shoot it, Ellie ran in with her knife and stabbed it. I helped Henry up as she helped Sam. 

“We gotta go!” Ellie said. 

We took off for the tree line. We had almost made it when someone ran up behind us. 

“Stop!” We turned around to find Kathleen pointing a gun at us. 

Before I got a chance to raise mine, a Clicker crawled up from behind and jumped at her. We watched in horror as what was once a kid but was now a monster clawed at her and screeched. 

“This way now! Move!” Hearing Joel yell at us sent an odd wave of relief as we all began running again. 

We made it across the bridge but didn’t stop there. We kept running until all of our adrenaline was gone. I wasn’t sure how far we had made it but we had finally slowed to a walk. We were all exhausted but wanted to put as much distance between us and the shit show that we had just left, so we pushed on. After about 30 minutes of walking, I began feeling nauseous and slightly lightheaded. 

“Hey, Joel, will you take this for a bit?” I asked, already sliding my bag off my back. 

“Yeah.” He took it and gave me a concerning look, “You okay?” He asked quietly as he slowed his pace down, letting the others walk a few yards ahead of us. 

“Yeah, just nauseous… I’ll be fine.” I tried to brush him off. 

“We can stop.” He offered. 

“No, let’s get a little further. Maybe we’ll pass a creek that we can refill the water with.” I said, trying to just keep walking, but the nausea took over, and I stopped. 

I turned away from Joel and began dry heaving. I had nothing in me to actually throw up. It made my whole body hurt. I managed to spit up what little had come up before standing back up. 

“Here.” Joel said, holding out the canteen that had the last of our water in it. 

“No, I’m fine.” I said, shaking my head. 

“You’re dehydrated. Take it.” He said, forcing it into my hands. 

I took it and began taking small sips of it, knowing that if I drank it too fast, it’d come right back up. We slowed our pace even more. 

“Hey, there’s a creek about a mile away, I think. We can refill there.” Henry said. 

Joel nodded in agreement. After we had gotten there I could tell Sam was exhausted. 

“We should probably stop soon. Sam doesn’t look like he’s going to make it much further, and I am right there with him.” I said. 

Everyone agreed that we’d use the next decent-looking building as our camp for the night. Luckily it was only about another mile away that we found one. It was an old motel. Once we got into one of the rooms, Joel made sure it was clear before we all went in. Then Henry and he used some of the furniture in there to barricade the door just in case. Luckily, the windows were boarded up already, so we wouldn’t have to worry about that. 

I helped make sure the bedroom area was okay for the two kids to sleep in and got them set up in there with a light. Then, I sat with them and read one of their comics with them. I was honestly trying to distract them and myself from everything that had just happened. 

3rd Person PoV

“You think they’ll be okay?” Henry asked as he watched the kid’s reading with Yn. 

Joel sighed and glanced over at them as well, “Yeah… it’s easier when you’re a kid anyway. Usually.” 

“What do you mean? And what about Yn?” Henry asked, taking a small bite of jerky. 

“Years before I met her, she was attacked by an Infected. Ever since then, she’s been paralyzed with fear of them. When we saw that Clicker, she had me with her. But today… she must have been running on pure adrenaline. From what she’s told me, her family was less than two miles from the Boston QZ. They were heading for a transfer to Baltimore…” 

“But Baltimore had already fallen, hadn’t it?” Henry asked, and Joel nodded. 

“I don’t know the details, but they ran out of fuel and had to make the last few miles on foot. She got attacked, and her brother, Scott, saved her… I don’t know if it’s so much the attack that stays with her or the memories of her brother it brings back. She lost him a few years later after she had lost all her other brothers, and after Scott, it was her dad. She has pretty much watched every piece of her family die…” Joel said. 

“At least she has you and Ellie now.” Henry said, trying to find a positive. 

Joel only nodded, knowing that despite his relationship with Yn and despite what she had told Henry, they weren’t really married, and Ellie wasn’t really either one of their kid. 

“I’m assuming Ellie isn’t her’s… biologically, I mean.” Henry said. 

“Hm?... oh yeah, um… no, no, she’s not.” Joel said. 

This time Henry was the one to give only a nod, not wanting to pry into their personal life too much. 

“Why do you think it’s easier when you’re a kid?” Henry asked his other question from earlier once again. 

“You don’t have anyone else relyin’ on you.” Joel said matter of factly. 

Henry hummed in agreement. He may not be a father but he knew what it was like to have someone depending on him for survival. 

“I guess we’re doing a good job then.” He said. 

Joel nodded before looking back to where Yn was still reading to the kids. She was being super animated with her reading and facial expressions, causing both the kids to smile. 

“What’s that comic book say? ‘Endure and survive?’” Joel asked, not taking his eyes off the trio in the other room. 

“Endure and survive.” Henry confirmed, “That shit’s redundant.” he let out a small huff of a laugh. 

“Yeah, it’s not great.” Joel agreed with an amused sigh. 

“Look, I’m not exactly sure how we’re getting to Wyoming. We’re probably walkin’. But… you know, if want to…” He trailed off. 

Henry was already nodding, “Yeah… yeah. Yeah, I think it would be nice for Sam to have a friend. I’ll tell him in the morning. New day, new start.” 

Yn PoV

I was so wrapped up in reading to the kids I didn’t notice Henry walk into the doorway until he knocked. I glanced up and nudged Sam so he could see what his brother was signing to him. 

“He needs to get to bed.” Henry said to me. 

I nodded, “I’ll read more another time.” I said, closing the comic book. 

Sam got up and moved to the other bed, allowing me to get off the one the three of us had been sitting on all together. I told them both good night and set the comic book down on the side table before following Henry out and closing the door behind us. 

“How you holdin’ up?” Joel asked as I walked over to sit next to him. 

“Pretty sure my feet have swollen to the point that they’re fused with my shoes.” I said with a small laugh. Though I was very serious, they were throbbing. 

“Need help takin’ them off?” He offered. 

“Nah, they are drenched in sweat, I am too scared they’re gonna smell.” I said honestly. 

“If it’s me you’re worried about, trust me, we’re all caked in sweat and grime. I know I probably reek, I don’t care. Take them off if you need to.” Henry said. 

Without waiting for me to tell him to, Joel was already moving to take my boots off for me. I winced in pain as he slid each one off. Even through my socks, I could see the swelling. Deep down, I was hoping my body would get used to it because I knew at this point our trip to Wyoming was going to be made on foot from here. 

“I don’t know about you two, but I am going to try and get some sleep.” I said, reaching for my jacket that I had tossed on to my bag earlier. 

I turned it inside out so that the cleaner part of it would be against my head before making it into a makeshift pillow. Originally my plan was to just put on the floor and sleep there, but Joel had grabbed it from my hands before I could. He cross-legged and put it on his lap. 

“Com’ere.” He said, nodding me over. 

I lay down and looked up at him. 

“I’m proud of you.” He whispered.

I shook my head slightly, “I don’t even know what was happening out there. It’s all just a blur…” 

“It’s probably for the best.” Joel said, “Try to get some sleep. I’ll be right here.” 

I knew that he meant he’d be right there for me if and when I woke up from a nightmare. Luckily though, I think my body was just completely exhausted because one never came. 

When I woke up, it was to Ellie yelling and Sam… snarling. He must have gotten bitten at some point last night. I sat up quickly as Joel and Henry woke up as well. Sam had Ellie pinned to the ground. Henry was quick to grab a gun. But instead of aiming it at his brother he aimed it at Joel, who was reaching for a gun as well. Henry fired at the ground in front of Joel, causing him to jump back. Then, before anyone else could react, he turned and shot his brother. I gasped and jumped back before turning around so I didn’t have to look at where Sam now lay with a hole in his head.

Everyone was breathing heavily as Joel called out to Ellie, “Ellie, are you okay?” He asked. 

I forced myself to turn back around and look her over from where I stood for any injuries. Joel went to walk to her, but once again, Henry pointed the now-shaking gun back at Joel. 

“Easy, easy, easy.” Joel said as if he were talking to a scared, injured animal, “Henry, gimme the gun.” 

“What did I do?” Henry asked, clearly in shock. 

“Henry, listen to Joel.” I said softly, trying not to startle him, I just didn’t want him to do something rash. 

“What did I do?” he kept repeating. 

He finally looked over to his brother, “Sam?” 

“Just give me the gun, Henry.” Joel tried again to get through to him. 

Then, without warning, Henry put the gun to his head. 

“Henry, no!” I yelled just as he pulled the trigger. 

I heard Ellie scream as I turned around. 

“Oh God.” I heard Joel whisper under his breath. 

Everyone stayed silent after that. I hadn’t moved from where I stood with my back to everything as if not seeing it would make it go away. Eventually, though, I had to turn around. I steeled my emotions and walked over to get my stuff. 

“We should bury them before we go.” I said. 

I half expected Joel to argue, but he didn’t. 

“There was a shed out beside the building. I’ll go see if they have a shovel.” Joel said. 

It took a while but we had gotten them buried in an area near the motel. Nobody said a word. Ellie had brought Sam’s writing pad out and laid it on his grave for him, which made me tear up. It wasn’t fair. None of this was. 

She stood up and turned to Joel, “Which way is west?” She asked. 

Joel pointed and without a word, Ellie turned that way and started walking. I saw that she had written “I’m sorry” on his writing pad, and my heart broke for her. 

“Let’s go.” She called, causing Joel and me to see that she had already crossed the road. 

I sighed and grabbed my bag as Joel did the same. He tucked his jacket into the arm stap and grabbed rifle as well and then we began to follow her. So much for a new day and a new start. 

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[tedwardremus]

This Town Is Fake But You're The Real Thing

Written for the August 2024 @jilychallenge

Theme: Celebrity Prompt: “We are in the same franchise but have never had screen time together until now, in season eight, and I think I’m in love with you?! Just like everyone said that I’d be?!” Partner: @chierafied

"Uh-oh," Marlene said, falling into step beside her. "That’s your ‘I’ve-read-the-script-and-hate-every-second-of-it’ face, isn’t it?"

Lily groaned. "You have no idea. They’ve gone and done it, Marls. They’ve put me with him ."

Marlene’s eyes widened. "Wait. With James ? Oh, Merlin. You’re kidding me."

"I wish I was joking. But it's happening—full-blown romantic storyline. The kisses, the longing stares, the whole cringe-worthy package." Lily threw her hands up, her voice thick with sarcasm. "It's the classic ‘opposites attract’ cliché to tie up the series with a neat little bow."

Marlene grimaced in sympathy. "Yikes. How are you feeling about it?"

"Like I want to hex someone into next week," Lily muttered, her tone dark and brooding. "I've managed to steer clear of him for years, and now suddenly we’re supposed to be star-crossed lovers? Why now? Why me?"

Her frustration continued to bubble over, and she couldn’t stop herself from ranting. "He's so spoiled. He's had everything handed to him—fame, adoration, you name it. And now, on top of it all, I’m supposed to fall for him in front of millions of listeners? It’s absurd."

Lily shook her head in disdain, "I hate this industry. It’s so shallow and self-absorbed. Everything is about image, about selling this vapid fantasy to people who eat it up. But once this contract is up, I’m done. I’m going to do something that actually matters, something meaningful. I can't keep wasting my time on this nonsense."

Marlene chuckled, though her sympathy was genuine. “It’s the final season. They want fireworks. And let’s face it—putting you two together is the biggest headline they could ask for."

[infiniteetcetera]

Listen, I’m not a Mor fan for a lot of reasons, but I do think it’s weird so many people think she will be the traitor next book because I simply…don’t see it? Don’t get me wrong, Mor is obviously a liar who’s keeping things from the IC but I can’t see her outright betraying them because part of her more annoying characteristics is her weird incestuous obsession with the boys. Her flaws aside, she does love the IC and the NC and demonstrates little to no ambition beyond them.

AMREN on the other hand? Given the fact she’s served us with NOTHING except pretend dying for ten seconds, I feel there’s no point to her character anymore except the possibility of being evil. All the facts certainly seem to line up for it too, for example:

• Small thing but, she’s the only IC member with no prospects for a book/POV set up. SJM could have thrown in a pov based on her/Varían in ACOFAS but didn’t and has made no reference to her getting one when every other IC member has

•Azriel has said he doesn’t trust her SINCE ACOMAF. He spies on her even though Rhys has told him not to (even though he refuses to spy on more theoretically risky/threatening people like Lucien) and has had hundreds of years to let this bad feeling fade away but hasn’t. Seems particularly relevant considering an Azriel POV book is soon to come, not to mention the fact this Azriel not trusting Amren conversation happens in the midst of a grander “Azriel doesn’t always listen to Rhys” conversation (foreshadowing for his book 👀)

•Amren is so connected to the prison which will likely be a big deal after what happened in HOFAS

•Amren bringing up this High King thing???? Even Rhys seems to realize he is NOT high king material. This storyline seems so weird and random, especially when in her other most recent series SJM just dismantled a monarchy. I definitely see no value in any attempted high king plot bc not a single high lord seems capable of ruling their own court (let alone more) BUT Amren trying to push a Feysand High King/Queen agenda to make them her puppets? Makes sense.

•Amrens weird relationship with Nesta??? Like their friendship in ACOWAR was actually pleasant and logical, but the fact that it all fell apart and Amren aided in tearing Nesta down makes me wonder if she planned to use her and then realized Nesta is not so easily controlled (Tamlin couldn’t even glamor this girl as a human). IDK I cringe everytime I remember Nesta apologized to Amren like NO

[jacquesthepigeon]

I think it’s hilarious actually that That Guy is so hellbent on making Chloe look like a mini Hitler or something but then they… redeemed her father?? “No b-b-but you see she’s rich and privileged” and the white guy who literally controlled Paris isn’t?? Lmao. The fact that his “redemption” is a five minutes cringe scene where he doesn’t take accountability for the shit’s Chloe’s done as if he hasn’t been enabling her bad behavior for years. They really wanna make us believe parents are somehow blameless when their children grow up spoiled and racist - if my daughter acted like that on public she would never hear the end of it. Like no way you’re living in my house thinking you can go around spitting racist stuff and bullying people because you’re rich. I’m not even a Chloe stan but even I think it’s ridiculous. That man literally threw her out like trash and took in the better version. Poor Zoe I hope someone can get her out of this crazy family. Andre is as bad as Audrey idc, you’re a full grown ass man incapable of taking responsibility. He legit abused his power to let Chloe bully her classmates and doing stuff she liked, “redemption” my ass he should’ve been thrown in jail

Deadass

Anyone with a solid moral compass can tell the storyline is bs

I can’t say exactly how parenthood has influenced the crew, but it does give me similar vibes to that one influencer that had a kid and soon after started accusing another influencer of abusing her father by “forcing him to stay homeless” when he was literally just a guy traveling around the country in a van of his own volition bc she “couldn’t imagine” her son treating her like that. Like some people assume their own strongly felt experiences are universal and draw all the wrong conclusions and sympathize with all the wrong figures. Those are the vibes I’m getting. As if the crew is in the headspace that all parents are doing their best and deserve forgiveness for every transgression and therefore it’s the “bad” kids in the show who are at fault. But again, just vibes, I can’t actually say what’s going on in the crew as I don’t know any of them.

[breadraccoon]

*No spoilers opinion*

Just watched the new Beetlejuice movie and you know what, it did do something incredible. It got me and my Dad on the exact same wavelength, because we were both like “Wow… that was a whole lot of nothing.” Never in my life has he and I agreed so strongly about why a film was bad and where it went wrong. And to that, I just want to say thank you. This film has brought me and Dad just a little bit closer.

A more serious spoiler filled rant below

I don’t mean to be too harsh on this film. It had a strong start. I liked how they were setting up a theme of how abusive/toxic men will try to force or manipulate their way into a relationship. Beetlejuice is the text book definition of a predator. Had they been able to land the theme of having self respect and not letting someone push you around, I think this could have been a great film. It’s frustrating for me as a writer to watch a film cut out time to develop its story to make room for more joke. And you can really feel it by the end. Especially when the jokes don’t land. There are a lot of jokes that go on for far too long. 

This film has so many side plots that go no where. Beetlejuice ex wife was in this film because? She had such a cool design! And scene of her putting herself back together, *chief kiss* AMAZING! But she has no plot relevance. She literally shows up at the end to just scare Beetlejuice and die. Also why can Beetlejuice freeze the cop but not her? There were so many plot conveniences at the end of this film that it seemed like the writers were just rushing to find a way to end the film.

Astrid storyline quickly got under cut by that awkward family reunion. I would have liked to have seen more of her Dad. They spend so much time talking about him, but he’s barely gets any time to shine. The whole family reunion scene felt so uncomfortable for the wrong reasons. I get that their married was failing, but idk let Lydia and her dead husband have more than three lines to each other. This was suppose to be the emotional climax that brings last living Deetz together and it felt so hollow. I don’t think I was sold on any relationship other than Charles and Delia. I cringe so often during this film. Every emotional moment felt so hollow by the end.

Willem Dafoe did not need to be in this film as much as he was. He was funny at first, but that cop actor joke got tired fast. He doesn’t really do anything either. He could have just been a smaller antagonist for Lydia as she tried to save her daughter. We don’t need investigator Dafoe. Also we need to talk about Delia. While Delia death was funny, why did we kill her off? Her death felt like it should have had more weight, but again it just felt underwhelming. I think I could go on and on covering every weak story point, but then this would be ten pages long.

Overall I couldn’t recommend this film to anyone. Especially if you have to pay to see it. This film was a cash grab.

[angelwheat]

The Mundane and the Magic

༻ a codz x reader story ༺

➶ Origins // ❝ Becoming One With Madness, A Chaos To Embrace ❞

➶ Chapter Three , 4378 words

Just as that wicked book of worldly prophecies foretold, the four men arrived in orderly manner. All hostile, and with the same mission to capture him, as predicted.

But who is she?

Richtofen paced about, holding his head in his hands, palms covering his ears like he desperately needed to muffle the sounds of the world as he lost himself in a state of hysteria. Jaggedly, he drew in shallow breaths, his heart pounding like a beating drum as he panicked like never before. Numerous thoughts ran rampant through his mind, none of which he could stably focus on, except one.

“Who is she? She’s not supposed to be here.” Richtofen choked out a whisper.

His mind replayed the same image of the girl. Despite how he only caught a glimpse of her from over the American’s shoulder, he can clearly recall all of her flawless details.

Her stoic, defensive stance, ready to spring into action in a blink. An assault rifle clutched tightly in her delicate hands. Her hair was windswept and dampened by the pouring rain, but somehow making her features look striking. Her most memorable feature of all was that of her eyes, so sharp and deadly as she glared down the American, visibly intimidating him.

Shakily, Richtofen exhaled, sweeping a hand through his hair. Even in the harsh winter climate, the German still found beads of sweat collecting on his forehead.

The Kronorium lie open on a tabletop before him. For what felt like hours, Richtofen had skimmed through every detail inked on the pages, desperately searching for a minuscule detail about a girl, just a mere mention of a name perhaps. Resultantly, he was none the wiser of her origin.

Stepping away from the table, Richtofen let his head slump slightly, his eyes lazily falling shut as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“This is just what I need.” He thought, a sigh slipping into the air in a cold mist.

Clambering and cluttering startled the German, instinctively reaching for his pistol as he noticed a stray zombie dragging itself out of a broken tomb in the wall. Landing itself on the floor with a hefty thud, the lofty creature staggered to its feet, and began lumbering towards Richtofen.

He raised his arm, squinting subtly as he stared down the barrel of the gun, and with ultimate precision, Edward fired a bullet directly through the zombie’s skull, sending splatters of blood flying askew, a few droplets landing on the exposed pages of the Kronorium.

Staring blankly as the creature crumbled into a heap of itself on the floor, Edward let his arm fall to his side, turning his nose up at the disgusting sight of the fallen undead soldier. He stepped over the zombie and headed towards the table, huffing when he noticed specks of blood painting the books’ pages.

An intrusive thought suddenly dawned on him, making his eyes shoot wide open in realisation.

“Did she even make it out of the bunker alive?” His mind yelled.

Ruminating on the thought of the bunker caving in on someone, or being trampled on by one of those giant robots, above all, had never made Richtofen cringe so badly before. He couldn’t put his finger on what made him this way now. A mere glimpse over someone else's shoulder was not enough to know the girl personally. So why did he grimace at the thought?

Despite how harsh it sounded in his mind, he didn’t care for her. She was merely a disruption to his storyline, someone that he convinced himself was of no interest, or better yet, of no gainful use to him.

But just why was a distant part of him longing to simply see her face again?

Deep down in his bitter heart, Edward felt guilty about abandoning the bunker so hastily. He was certain that the other men would save themselves, but was entirely unsure of her aftermath. Even if she did survive the collapse of the bunker, Edward stirred on the thought of the undead chasing her down, or even the thought of the other men interrogating her. Or worse...

He flipped the cover of the book over in a huff, closing it so harshly to emit a shrilling slap to bounce off the walls, now standing alone with the feeling of defeat.

-X-

The undead swarmed the land in higher numbers than ever before, becoming increasingly difficult to battle as the torrential rain battered the grounds.

Mutated soldiers, clad in heavy armour equipped with flame-throwers built into their steel suits, proved a monstrosity to defeat. With no logical plan devised at such a short notice, the foursome resulted in almost depleting their entire stock of ammunition when it hunted them down.

Waves of zombies fluctuated endlessly, rarely allowing the foursome a chance to rest. However, during that time they had managed to restore power to the barren lands, using the generators dotted scarcely.

Rain drenched their clothes, virtually weighing them down like anchors with their heavy gear strapped to their bodies. Keeping close by to one another, seemed to be their only tactic for survival at this point, for the gushing rain acted as a sheet they could hardly see through at long distance.

“We can’t keep fighting in these conditions!” The girl shouted over the deafening sounds of rain and gunfire.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Dempsey yelled, not intending for his words to sound so harsh towards her.

Nikolai sent Dempsey a death-glare when he heard his bitter tone again, however, the American failed to notice.

“She’s right. We’ll be ambushed.” The Russian retorted loudly.

Dempsey sent a scoff the Russian’s way.

Fortunately at that moment, the hordes seem to ease, with just a few stray zombies staggering towards them, making it much simpler to take them down from a distance.

The girl reloaded her rifle, as did the men standing nearby, counting their munitions. Just before Takeo sheathed his katana, he noticed a zombie limping towards them. Towards her...

She stood with her head bowed from the rain, preoccupied with stocking her weapons and adjusting her gear. That’s when the creature’s pace quickened as it caught sight of her.

“Behind you, (Y/n).” He warned, but the girl only faintly heard him.

Takeo lunged forward when the zombie neared dangerously close, coming up beside her, his stance stretched as he unsheathed his blade in a flash, his movements swift and majestic as he sliced the creature’s head clean off its body.

The girl had jumped back startled by the sudden movements, placing a hand over her racing heart. He peered at her, somewhat anxiously, noticing her staring back with her mouth agape ever so slightly

“Thanks, Takeo.” She breathed.

She watched Takeo as he pinched and dragged two fingers across the length of his blade, wiping away blood flay. He gave her a single affirmative nod in response.

A disruptive sound of someone harshly clearing their throat made the girl spin on her heel, her expression quickly changing into a look of disapproval as she immediately glared at Dempsey, who pretended to be observing his knife in his hands. Nikolai stood a fair distance to the side of the American, smiling weakly when she looked his way.

The girl stepped forward towards the trio of men that came together.

“Looks like we have a break.” She surmised, looking between the boys eyeing her intently. “But there’s no way I’m gonna see through another horde like that without ammo.”

Dempsey agreed, nonchalantly motioning to his own weapon. “Me, too. My gun’s empty.”

(Y/n) hummed. “Perhaps loading everything you had into that armoured zombie wasn’t the best idea.”

“What was I supposed to do? That thing was backing you into a corner.” The American reasoned, immediately regretting his choice of words when she looked at him in surprise.

“Well, it’s nice to know you’re looking out for me.” She feigned a smug grin, sending a rosy hue across his face.

Nikolai couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face when he heard her witty comment, looking back at her sheepishly when the girl glanced at him.

Takeo studied his surroundings, ignoring the bickering. The mound central of the dig site had piqued his interest the moment the girl handed him the map in the church. Judging from that map, there was a site underground still to explore, and a German to find, above all.

“Perhaps we should search the mound.” Takeo’s suggested, intervening the bickering.

In unison, everyone turned to the mound just a short walk away.

She walked up to stand beside the Asian, looking up towards the mound over-towering the grounds.

“Takeo’s right.” She agreed. “We haven’t searched there yet.”

Takeo’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of his name rolling of her tongue so lusciously, but desperately pushed his fondness aside, scolding himself for a brief moment of defocus on his mission.

“Maybe we’ll find the German up there.” Nikolai added in his gruff voice, shrugging his shoulders.

Dempsey grumbled. “I fucking hope so.”

(Y/n) trudged ahead of the men as they began walking up narrow wooden slopes, as pathways seeming more like scaffolding, leading to the core of the mound.

She dared not to peek over her shoulder, for she was already aware of the very obvious eye-balling from the American. She could feel his stare. Those gorgeous blue eyes of his, roaming freely over her body. She hated just how much it flustered her.

‘Ignore him. Just focus on your mission.’ She told herself.

Kicking rocks and debris aside with her boot, the girl stepped into the centre of the mound. Tower stone pillars arched acutely at the tip, embedded with patches of a illuminated blue substance, circled the area in which they stood. A machine, appearing as a short ancient sculpture made of stone, with a skull embedded in its design above a carved and hallowed out slit in the middle. Upon further inspection, there were gears inside. Just what the machine was used for, left the crew speculating. But presumably it had a higher purpose than any other machine they had seen, for it was protected at the top of the mound.

They wandered warily for a moment, until Nikolai called out.

“There is an entrance into some tunnels here.” He spoke generally to all present, but glanced to the girl specifically.

She was the first to wander over to the Russian, looking downwards at a gaping hole in the ground, with a wooden pathway leading further inside what seemed like a cave. Dempsey and Takeo soon followed, taking a look at the makeshift path themselves, the interior of the room lacking any light source.

“This is just what that map had drawn on it...” She trailed off, looking back at Takeo who nodded in agreement.

Prepared to enter the crypt, the girl keenly took a step forward, only to be met with Dempsey’s arm swiftly reaching across her to block her path.

“Hold it, missy.” He smirked. “I got this.”

She scoffed as Dempsey instantly moved a step forward when the sound of a shotgun cocking made him halt abruptly.

“Says the man with no ammunition.” Nikolai asserted, sounding unimpressed.

Without a word, Nikolai trudged past Dempsey, not even batting an eye in his direction. If he had, the Russian would have seen the way he glowered at him.

(Y/n) followed in Nikolai’s footsteps hastily. Down a rickety narrow slope, he lead them into a catacomb of ancient ruins, embellished with sovereign monuments, and no light to illuminate the place, but that of rocks carved to bare the very same glowing blue mineral they had seen in countless places about the grounds.

Dempsey and Takeo came just after the girl, observing the site of the ruins cautiously. Heading further down, an array of cluttered tables and workbenches came into view, with prehistoric artefacts lying on top, and a tall raven-haired man standing hunched slightly before them.

The girl instantly recognised the man, shoving her way past Nikolai and storming towards him.

“There you are, you slippery bastard!” Her shrilling voice echoed, bouncing off the walls and startling him.

Her pace quickened to reach the German. Grabbing his arm firmly, she spun him around, nearly tripping him over his own feet, and shoved him forcefully back into the table, emitting a crash and strangled yelp from him on impact

Utter fear spread across his face when she grasped him firmly by his shirt collar, his breath hitching when her face came inches from his.

“You’ve got some serious explaining to do!” She spat in fury. “Do you know what hell we’ve been through?”

Had the girl peered over her shoulder in that moment, she would have seen the confound faces of the men behind her. Each of them astounded by her ferocity and will to confront a mad man so closely. Especially the Russian, who was visibly flustered by her sudden burst of ferity.

Shoving herself away from the German, he saved himself from toppling back from her hard push, panting from where his breath held hitched.

Richtofen briefly appeared to be gawking at her. From where his mouth hung agape as he drew in quick breaths, his eyes enlarged and startled, he almost lost himself in a daze if not for a brute American accent catching his attention.

“Are you gonna let us in on what’s going on here?” Dempsey urged angrily. “What are those things?”

Richtofen knew just what he was talking about. Those stalking, filthy, rotten corpses...

“There is no time to explain.” He retorted in a panic, turning his back to them.

Weapons cocking in unison made the German freeze. His body stiffened as he warily pivoted, more so glancing over his shoulder to see his intruders standing with their weapons locked on him. The girl stood a small distance in front of the men, glaring him in the eye.

He sheepishly shifted his gaze between them all as he stuttered, “Uh- We need to start up the conversion generators.”

“Already done it.” She snapped, her jaw clenching.

Richtofen began to sweat, feeling his state of fret exacerbate. The intensity of her stare running up and down him wavered his composure.

“Then we must leave here. They will return soon.” Richtofen urged, placing his hand atop the Kronorium.

The girl had noticed the way he protected it from the beginning, only raising her suspicions.

“We? Yeah right.” Dempsey’s sarcastic voice made the German look his way.

She turned her head slightly, speaking over her shoulder. “Dempsey, as much as I hate to disagree with you right now, he’s right.”

Both Dempsey and Nikolai countered her words with a quick moment of shock, also noticing Takeo gazing at her in surprise when she spun around to face the men directly.

“Let’s face it,” She began to voice. “He’s probably the only man alive who knows this place in and out.”

“He’s the enemy, (Y/n).” Dempsey told, a blank look on his face.

“And you’re also my enemy.” She retorted, looking at each man individually. “But I think surviving is more important right now, don’t you think?”

Dempsey fought the urge to storm off at her argument, but mysteriously, he felt the need to keep his eyes glued to the German at all times. As well as Nikolai and Takeo, Dempsey noticed an unsettling glint to his eye, something that he didn’t like. Especially when he watched the German take a gander at the girl when her back was turned to him. It riled him up inside.

The trio she faced shared an irritated expression, to which they all looked at each other, silently agreeing with her.

Sternly, she spoke. “We still need ammo, remember.”

Richtofen hesitantly piped up. “There are a few ammunition stashes that I know of.”

(Y/n) pivoted when she heard the German’s voice, instantly noticing the way he stared at her, merely observing him as he straightened his posture. The pleading look in the German’s eye almost made the girl pity him.

Richtofen knew rightfully in his own mind that he was untrustworthy for his actions in account of participating in obliterating civilization entirely. However, here and now, the girl he was faced with seemed to be the only one that was wise enough to be sensible about the situation. He found himself admiring her for that.

“I could show you where those stashes are.” There was a faint hint of apprehensiveness in Richtofen’s tone.

Despite how he spoke predominantly to the foursome before him, the way his eyes settled on the girl virtually pleaded for her accord only.

Dismissing the dirty looks she received when she peered over her shoulder, (Y/n) gave a single nod to the German.

“Lead the way.”

-X-

Searching for ammunition stashes proved to be more than just a simple task. As well as fending off hordes of the undead, throughout the entirety of any break they were granted, bickering ensued between the boys, typically instigated by Dempsey.

If not for the girl’s voice of reasoning, and will to clap back at his sarcasm, the American would never stop talking. Although, it almost seemed that Dempsey was making witty remarks on purpose, to spark a reaction from her, for his own enjoyment. Especially when she would flash a smirk his way, Dempsey knew it stirred a disapproving reaction from Nikolai and Takeo.

Remaining a short distance ahead, Richtofen led the group across muddy trails, evidently cautious of his every step as he peered downwards to avoid slipping. A couple of times, the German made wary glances over his shoulder, presumably to check that he was still being tailed. But unbeknownst to the group, he was secretly admiring her.

Richtofen was baffled at how anyone could remain so well-presented and fiercely composed in the face of madness. The way she carried herself, standing tall, her eyes always level with her enemies, braving the undead with not a glimmer of fear in her eye.

Leading them into a dimly lit and cluttered bunker, Richtofen stepped quickly inside, the girl following a few steps behind.

“Here.” The German moved aside, motioning to towers of wooden crates and metal cases.

The men had trudged in wearily behind, their eyes fixated on the German entirely.

“Take all the supplies that you need.” Richtofen told before walking away to another area within the bunker.

“You guys go ahead and stock up.” (Y/n) said quietly, all the while eyeing Richtofen as he moved a lantern onto a workbench he stood by.

She listened to the numerous footsteps sounding behind her as the trio hastily made their way over to the supply crates.

Intently, she observed the German for a moment, watching as he fumbled to pull things from crates and boxes nearby, moving so jaggedly, that he was bound to trip over his own feet as he went from table to table almost in a fret. She squinted, merely eyeing him with a puzzled look on her face.

Why did he seem so unbothered by the fact that four people were just trying to kill him?

And how did she find herself getting lost in a daze as she admired him from afar?

Despite how she only viewed him from behind, her eyes were roaming freely over him while he had his back turned. His figure was tall and broad at the shoulders, yet slightly slimmer, and narrower at the waistline than the other men. Clad in a white shirt, dulled and dampened in colour by the rain, presented neatly with a light murky green waistcoat over the top. Her eyes followed down the length of his figure, eyeing his rear for a minute longer than she dared to admit, and further down his lanky legs.

She tugged at the collar of her coat, all of a sudden finding the garment restricting as her face heated up, her face boldly flushed a cherry hue.

“(Y/n).” A voice called, making her jump back to reality.

Spinning on her heel, the girl was faced with Dempsey eyeing her with a stupid smirk on his face. She crossed her arms, sheepishly making eye contact as her face heated up even more when Dempsey’s smirk transformed into a small grin.

“You know, for a guy you’ve just met-” He began.

“Yeah, yeah, save it.” The girl hastily cut his words short, huffing in annoyance.

The American’s cocky demeanour really grated her... In a strange way that made her cheeks red and heart flutter.

“You oughta get yourself suited up.” Dempsey urged.

Wiping a hand over her face, she lazily walked towards the men situated by the supply stash. Nikolai perched on the corner of a large crate, a smile tugging at his lips when she glanced at him as she walked up beside him. She began rummaging around the crate, chewing her lip as she thought to herself.

Nikolai observed her with curiosity and awe. For a girl extensively trained with firearms, one would not expect to see such a delicate touch. She stocked her weapons magazine to its limit, her agility and precision astounding as her movements flowed steadily with each bullet she loaded.

The girl had clocked his attentive stare from the moment she began restocking her weapons, silently pleading Nikolai hadn’t noticed the way she had almost fumbled with the bullets between her fingers, almost finding the thought of those gorgeous blue eyes of his, watching her intently to be disruptive.

“You work with absolute precision.” Nikolai commented, faintly startling her with his gruff accent.

She met his eyes and for a brief moment the Russian appeared anxious before he babbled again.

“I mean you have very steady hands. Unlike myself-” He mumbled the last few words with a nervous chuckle.

Almost smugly, she hummed. “I beg to differ.”

Nikolai gave her a sheepish grin, to which she returned a soft smile.

Just as the atmosphere seemed tranquil, clambering and cluttering emitted from the other room. Startled, the girl spun on her heel, standing bravely with her pistol raised before her, but hesitantly lowering her weapon when a series of curses in German tumbled out in annoyance. She rolled her eyes and returned her gun to its holster.

“The German seems... skittish.” Nikolai commented under his breath, although loud enough for the girl to hear.

“You’re telling me.” She crossed her arms, slouching back on a supply crate.

The Russian seemed to lowly chuckle to himself, causing the girl to raise a brow. She kept her gaze fixated on the doorway in which lead to Richtofen, somewhat expecting him to step out in a flurry.

“Perhaps he is scared you’ll threaten him again.” Nikolai quipped.

She laughed faintly.

“Well, perhaps he should tell us what we’re all doing here.” She raised her voice slightly, intentionally for the German to hear.

Her voice caught the attention of the other men present, each of them directing their line of vision to the doorway Richtofen soon stepped through.

The German appeared windswept with his untamed hair, presumably running his hands through it often. Frustration was apparent on his face as his brows scrunched faintly. His sharp eyes fell on her instantly, his gaze virtually scrutinizing her for disturbing him.

Takeo and Dempsey stood somewhat defensively nearby, apprehensive of the German’s next move.

“What’s going on here, Doc?” The American growled in annoyance, asserting harshness on his medical title.

Richtofen huffed, straightening his posture.

“The state of the universe is facing a collapse.” Edward told bluntly, knowing rightfully his explanation was bound to be called out.

He was met with three blank faces, followed by a dramatic eye-roll and unimpressed chuckle from the American. The German glowered at him, and with a huff, continued to speak.

“All of you may want to reconsider your mission-” Edward made a quick, apprehensive glance to the floor. “For it is essential that we move as one, for the sake of survival.”

The girl observed the men, noticing that Dempsey was verging on bursting with an interjection for the German, his lips pressed into a line and his fists clenched certainly proved it.

“We’re just supposed to take your word on that and get along as friends?” Dempsey’s almost growled.

“No.” The German clapped back. “I’m expecting you to take my word so that you can ensure that you won’t die.”

(Y/n) gazed to the floor as she smirked at his blunt comeback.

Richtofen huffed. “There are urgent matters we must attend to, and I can tell you more in due time-”

His eyes darted between the foursome before him, in turn eyeing him sceptically.

“But, trust me, I do not speak lightly when I say that there’s a war to be won.”

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Same Trailer, Different Park

(Pilot Episode)

April 14, 2024

Notes - Last night, I went to my first-ever DND game with my oldest nephew, and it was incredible! It's supposed to be every other week, but we're doing it again this upcoming Saturday, and the storyline is giving me so many ideas that I could use for one-shots and stuff! Also, my sciatic pain is going away. It's moved from going all the way from my spine to my right knee to just my right hip, so that's an improvement! Anyway, this was just shy of 50 pages and would have been posted sooner if I had the moodboard and divider transferred to my computer, but I didn't, so here we are lmao! The divider I've used is just temporary until I can sit down and work on one I think suits the vibe, but until then, it is what it is. Also, I hope your finals go well! I believe in you!!

April 14th - the day RMS Titanic struck the iceberg.

Usually, on this day every year, I would be prepping for a Titanic watch party and making sure everyone was ready for it, but that’s just not how it’s going to go this time around. After I get out of school today, it’s officially spring break, and I couldn’t be more excited to finally get away from this endless rain despite the deviation from my annual Titanic anniversary get-together. Riven already offered to give me a ride to school this morning, but since Mom asked me to give Abby and Olly one, and Erica’s piece of shit truck can’t go over puddles without breaking down, he’s giving her and JJ a ride instead. I have to remember to pick up stuff for my battle bot before I leave school, so I’ll tell Abby to remind me - she’s good at that kind of thing. Maybe if I take my notebooks with me on my trip, Mickie and the guys can help me figure out some ideas for what I want to build. Then, I won’t have to come up with something when I get back! Yeah, maybe that’s what I’ll do!

Vivien snapped her journal shut and tugged her headphones off before turning them off and tossing them onto her desk alongside her journal. With a sigh, she found her gaze in the mirror that hung on the back of her closet door as she made her way toward it. Despite the hair sticking in every direction, the blanket marks lining the arm she had fallen asleep on, and the wrinkled pajamas she wasn’t quite ready to rid herself of, she looked ready to start her day. Although she highly doubted she would need a cup of coffee that morning as her excitement for the day was propelling her forward like a cup full of espresso shots, Vivien knew she needed to at least look like she was half as ready as she felt.

Her reflection smiled back as she pushed the door of her closet open, but as she pulled the clothes she had set aside the night before down from her hangers, she found herself wondering if she should have put more thought into the outfit she had chosen. Would her typical choice of jeans, a witty graphic tee, and a brightly colored long-sleeve be a good choice in the long run? She would stand out like a sore thumb in the sixties, but nobody at her school would, frankly, give a shit what she wore. Her dad’s signature triple knock on her bedroom door gave Vivien no chance to change her mind as she hollered back that she was almost ready to go. He left after letting her know that he had to leave for an early morning meeting, wishing her a good morning and telling her that he would see her at lunch before leaving to tell the twins the same.

Sighing as she stretched her tired limbs out, Vivien set her cell phone on her dresser, asking Siri to put on one of her playlists as she debated on what to do with her hair. Glancing at the clothes she had yet to pack for her vacation, Vivien cringed as she realized just how much work she’d forced on her after-school self. For once, she was tragically unprepared for a trip. There was a lot she would have to do in the small amount of time between her release from school and Mick’s family picking her up. Pulling her shirt over her head with a huff and freeing her hair from under the collar, Vivien found her phone screen illuminated as a text came in from the girl who had invited her on her family’s trip in the first place.

Mick’s text was simple - a picture of four plane tickets to the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California. Then, as Vivien smiled at her phone, another message came in, asking her if she was ready. A flutter of eager anticipation flew through Vivien’s text as she replied, telling the older brunette how excited she was to finally be able to spend time with the people they both cared about. Once the message had been sent, Vivien found an ABBA song on her playlist, turned the volume back up, and sang softly to herself as she finished getting ready for the day.

After brushing her teeth and taking the time to detangle the hair she had forgotten to ask someone to braid the night before, Vivien gathered her things for school, shoving her overstuffed folder full of homework and project notes into her backpack before grabbing her permission slip for the regional battle bot tournament and shoving it into the back of her bag where it would be kept relatively safe until the end of the school day. Tucking her school laptop into her bag, zipping it shut, and throwing a strap over her shoulder, Vivien scurried out of her room, just barely remembering to turn off the light as Oliver mumbled out a good morning on his way to the stairs. Chuckling as she wished her brother a good morning, Vivien stepped back to allow Abby to parade by with her backpack on one shoulder, a book in her free hand, and her hair pulled back in a migraine-inducing high pony that Vivien was sure she would hear the girl complaining about later in the day.

Following her siblings downstairs as Abby muttered her oral report to herself, Vivien took in a slow breath and hoped her mother had already left for her meeting with some city council board as the smell of slightly charred bacon wafted through the air. Their mother had a habit of making perfect bacon and sausage for herself and everyone else but would sometimes forget Vivien’s and her ex-husband’s in the pan while she took the time to ensure her twins had everything exactly how they liked it. Vivien never bothered to bring up the issue; instead, she gave the charred bacon strips or sausage patties to Riven as he was practically a walking garbage disposal and seemed to enjoy the blackened breakfast meats. Her siblings had tried to bring it up before, and Vivien knew her father had tried as well, but to no avail. The woman wouldn’t argue much with her younger children and always denied anything being wrong, pointing out the fact that Vivien never brought it up herself, but even when Oliver argued that the disgust on Vivien’s face was obvious, nothing changed.

Entering the kitchen, Vivien smirked as Oliver turned back toward Abby and began spouting random historical facts to throw his twin off her train of thought. Abby was quick to fight back, whacking her brother with her book as she told him to shut up and let her focus. Their mother was quick to jump in and tell her only son to leave his sister alone before handing them both their lunch boxes and telling them to get going before they were late. Abby sent Vivien an apologetic look as the eldest of the O’Brian kids took the only remaining lunch box from the counter, and their mother ushered them toward the coat closet. After giving the twins a quick kiss on the forehead and telling Vivien to drive safely, the woman grabbed her jacket and left, heading out to her car and taking off while the kids were still pulling on their spring coats. 

With a sigh, Vivien grabbed her keys from the hook by the door and held the door open for her siblings, but it wasn’t until they were in the pale blue Hyundai Vivien had received from their father after passing her license test that any of them chose to speak up. Oliver huffed as he slid into the back seat, buckling his seatbelt before stretching out across the bench seat and sighing, “I don’t get Mom’s issue.”

“Olly,” Vivien sighed, a soft reprimand that she hoped would keep her brother from ranting the whole way to their school.

“No, Viv,” Abby cut in before Oliver could speak, “we all see she treats you differently, and it isn’t right!”

“It isn’t,” Vivien agreed as she pushed the key into the ignition and started the car, turning the defroster on to keep the windows clear, “but it isn’t worth the effort of trying to change her. Besides, I’ve got you guys and Dad.”

“And Auntie Hayley and Aunt Charlie,” Oliver piped in.

“Exactly,” Vivien nodded, smiling at her younger brother as she backed out of the driveway.

Abby huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and slouching in her seat as she complained, “Still. I wish we knew what her problem was.”

“I have a few theories,” Oliver claimed.

Abby grinned, “We know. You’ve shown us your corkboard of conspiracy theories.”

“Yeah,” Vivien snorted, putting the car into drive and taking off down their street. “I swear, introducing you to MatPat and Shane Dawson at a young age was a bad idea.”

“Seriously,” Abby agreed teasingly. “If I have to be subjected to another three-hour rant about the government brainwashing us through Justin Beiber’s music, I just might pitch myself off of the water tower.”

“First of all, that’s not what my theory was about,” Oliver chuckled, “and second, I meant about Mom treating Viv differently.”

Shifting so that she could see both Oliver and Vivien, Abby said, “Well, you’re the conspiracy theorist here. What do you think is the issue?”

Excited to finally have the chance to blather about the ideas he had been bouncing around in his head for a while, Oliver beamed as he began his spiel, “My first thought was that she’s jealous that Vivien has a better relationship with Auntie Hayley and is upset that she’s not Viv’s birth mom, but that wasn’t an issue when we were little, so why would it be now?”

“Yeah, makes sense,” Abby nodded thoughtfully, sparing a glance at Vivien, who nodded as she slowed to a stop at an intersection. Turning back to her twin, Abby pressed, “So, what else you got?”

Oliver sighed, “Sadly, I think the most likely reason is that she’s just pissy because she thinks Viv forced me into the ‘Alphabet Soup Community’ and is scared she’ll do the same to you, Abs.”

Abby’s expression shifted, a disgusted wince tugging her eyebrows together in frustration as she took in her brother’s theory. It made sense, but she didn’t want to admit it. Though Vivien had come out as bisexual years ago, their mother never truly seemed to accept it until Vivien began dating Royce a few months ago. When Oliver came out as gay, the woman had taken the news out on her eldest child, pulling her aside and blaming her for “poisoning her baby brother” with her “disgusting beliefs.” Abby had unintentionally overheard the conversation, listening proudly to her older sister as the brunette fought for her brother to be treated better than she had been. When Abby later told Oliver what she’d heard, the pair found themselves in Vivien’s room, showering their sister with kind words of gratitude and love that the older girl seemed to relish in.

Ready to rant about their mother’s blatant homophobia, Abby scoffed; however, it was Vivien who spoke before her sister could rage for the rest of the drive, “Sadly, that could be right.” Vivien placed a hand on top of the one Abby had placed on the center console, gently squeezing her hand as she continued, “Even though I hope that’s not the case, it could very well be. She’s always been a little… uptight about that sort of thing.”

“A little?” Oliver chortled, finding Vivien’s gaze in the rear-view mirror. “That’s the understatement of the year.”

Abby laughed, “You couldn’t pull a needle out of her ass with a tractor!”

“Abby!” Vivien reprimanded despite her laughing at the girl’s choice of words.

“It’s the truth!” Abby argued. “I’m sure she would’ve sent you guys to conversion therapy or something if Dad hadn’t said something.”

Vivien sighed as she turned onto School Street, “Still. She’s our mom, and until we move out, we have no choice but to put up with her bullshit.”

Oliver shifted in his seat, ready to crack a joke in order to lighten the situation, but Abby huffed, “I just don’t get why your sexualities matter so much to her. It’s not like it has anything to do with her in the first place.”

“Maybe she-”

“And why should she care if I’m straight or not?” Abby continued, cutting off Vivien’s statement with a scoff. “Is she just going to drop all of us if I someday decide to come out of the closet?”

Once he was sure his twin was done ranting, Oliver shrugged, “Maybe. Like Auntie Hayley said, Mom can’t stand that we aren’t her little dolls who do whatever she says now. I wouldn’t put it past her if she chooses to up and leave if this becomes a three-for-three situation.”

Taking in the wounded expression on her baby sister’s face as she pulled into an empty parking spot, Vivien smiled reassuringly and said, “I doubt you have much of anything to worry about anyway. Even if you came out as bi like I did, you and Malachi have been dating for, what, almost a year now?” When Abby nodded wordlessly, Vivien continued, “Well, Mom only chilled out when she found out I was dating Royce. Since you’re dating a boy already, I doubt there would be a problem.”

“Besides,” Oliver began as he pushed open his door and picked up his bag from the floor, “you’re straight - you have nothing to worry about.”

Plastering a smile on her face as she tugged her bag up from the floor, Abby nodded, “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

Patting Abby’s hand with a grin, Vivien opened her door and stepped outside, grabbing her backpack from the backseat and locking the car once the doors were closed. Once her keys were safely tucked into the front pocket of her backpack, Vivien followed her siblings to the front door of the school. Before she could step inside, however, a honk from a nearby car made  Vivien jump, whirling around to see Riven’s red Miata pulling to a stop by the sidewalk. Telling her siblings she would see them later, Vivien headed over to the car as the passenger’s side door opened, and a head of emerald hair stepped out before pushing the seat forward.

“Hey, Viv,” Jade greeted with a smile as she tightened her ponytail.

As Erica tumbled out of the backseat, the seatbelt wrapped around the ankle of her Doc Martens, she peered up at the brunette and beamed, “Oh, good! I was hoping to catch you before first period.” 

“Mission accomplished,” Vivien chuckled as Erica hobbled her way away from the car. As the car door closed and the window rolled down, she leaned over and teased, “That’s the only car full of ladies you’ll ever have, isn’t it?”

Riven sent his best friend a grin and gestured to his fellow bandmates as he spoke, “Blues Clues over there can hardly be considered a lady, and considering JJ is the only cheerleader who has ever given me the time of day, probably.”

Chuckling, Vivien rolled her eyes and said, “You’re an idiot.”

“Love you too.”

Before Vivien could return the sentiment, Erica placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “Alright, dipshits, let’s go before the bell rings and we get told off.”

Jade chuckled as she tossed her Chapstick into her bag, “By who; Viv’s dad?”

Vivien snorted at the thought of her dad reprimanding them, but Erica beat her to the punch as she turned toward her girlfriend and said, “I was thinking Coach Boogeyman.”

Leaning over the passenger seat, Riven wondered, “I thought Bogman was forced to leave after the color guard claimed she was spying on them in the showers.”

“She was supposed to,” Jade huffed, “but until they find enough evidence to take her to court, she has to finish out the year.”

“Sadly,” a voice sighed from behind the group. Turning toward the voice, Vivien smiled as her father spoke, “Until we have her on camera, there’s nothing we can do. Besides, she’s been pushing off retirement for years. With this accusation, we should be able to finalize everything at the end of the year.”

“Good,” Erica snipped as Vivien stepped around her. “She’s always given me the creeps.”

“Understandably so,” Damien chuckled softly, smiling as his daughter slotted herself under his arm. “Hey, babygirl.”

“Hey, Dad,” Vivien beamed. “Did you come to walk us to class?”

Damien shook his head, squeezing his daughter’s shoulder as he replied, “Not quite. I saw you four chatting and figured I would try to get you inside before anyone else came out and started yelling.” Leaning forward enough to see Riven, he asked, “Are you joining us, Riven, or are you just going to do virtual lessons today?”

“No, I’ll be in,” Riven quickly replied, glancing toward the parking lot with his signature grin. “Just have to find a place to park.”

“Make it quick, bud,” the man stated as he glanced at his smartwatch. “The bell rings in ten minutes.”

Riven nodded, checking to make sure his path was clear before pulling away from the curb, his Miata drifting toward the parking lot as Damien began leading his daughter and her friends inside. After handing her lunchbox off to her dad so he could put it into the staff fridge until lunch, Vivien waited until Riven came running up to the front door before stepping inside behind him, taking his hand and allowing him to pull her toward the stairwell across from the main office, waving goodbye to their friends and her father as they propelled up the stairs. Riven dragged her up to the next floor, where their lockers resided, before letting her go as he began twisting in his locker combination. Meanwhile, Vivien pulled her keys from her backpack, slipped a purple-painted one into her lock, and freed it, popping open the metal door with a sigh and placing her bag on the hook inside.

“You know,” Riven began, “it’s days like today that I wish my birthday wasn’t after the school cutoff.”

“Rough morning?” Vivien asked with a grin.

Riven scoffed as he tugged his social studies workbook down from the shelf he had shoved it onto the day before, “I slept through my alarm, and Dad was already at work, so he couldn’t help. Then, I woke up to Erica screeching about needing a ride, only to have my phone die mid-call. And, to top it all off, I’m about eighty-three percent sure these sweatpants are yours from the weekend.”

Vivien’s eyebrow lifted, but as she glanced down at the navy blue sweatpants Riven donned,  her eyes widened. Sure enough, the stars and planets she had embroidered around the pockets and hemline of her sweatpants now stood as a glaring reminder of the clothes she had tossed into the wash at Riven’s house. They had been cooking stuffed shells, and she had dropped the jar of sauce, splattering chunky, red tomato sauce all over the floor and their legs. After putting the food in the oven, they got a majority of the stains out in the sink but threw their clothes into the laundry afterward to get rid of the smell. She had forgotten the pants in her rush to get out the door on Monday morning, having told Riven she would take them back when she went back to his house after spring break was over. Holding back her bark of laughter, Vivien grinned at the thought of Riven rushing around his room that morning, throwing on whatever he could find before leaving the house and somehow missing the colorful threads lining his legs.

“Yeah,” Riven breathed, rolling his eyes at Vivien’s not-so-discrete snort of laughter. “Erica thought it was hilarious.”

“It kind of is,” Vivien giggled softly. At Riven’s dismayed sigh, her grin faltered, and she glanced down at her pants as she offered, “Do you want to trade? I’m pretty sure I stole these from you over the summer.”

Riven spared a glance at the jeans Vivien had worn and grinned; the cuffs were rolled up toward her ankles to prevent them from being stepped on, and she had to wear a belt just to keep the waistband in place, something Riven had no issue with in the slightest. With a snort, he shook his head, “I think I’m good, Pip. You made these and, despite them being on the shorter side, I’m only here until lunch. I can run home and change before work after I’m done eating. Besides, they wouldn’t match your outfit.”

Vivien’s eyebrow lifted into her bangs as she asked, “Since when do you care if clothes match?”

“I don’t,” Riven shrugged as he closed his locker, “but I know you do. Now, come on, it’s almost time for the bell.”

Scrambling to grab her books for the next two classes so she wouldn’t have to run to her locker between bells, Vivien slammed her locker shut and walked alongside Riven until he reached his class. They wouldn’t see each other again until she was allowed to head to the cafeteria for lunch, but their mornings in the halls were something she had cherished for a while. Joining a few of her classmates on their way to their first period of the day, Vivien caught a glimpse of the oversized clock on the wall and sighed. She had four periods until lunch, and only two were on the same floor, but she had planned to use her study hall block to join her friend Emily in the drama wing of the main floor. 

Emily - or Emmy, as she was often called by her relatively small friend group - had been begging her for the last two weeks to join her for the auditions in some musical the school was putting on. Originally, Vivien had no desire to audition as she hated the thought of having so many eyes on her, but when Emily pointed out that the auditorium was in close proximity to the cafeteria, she relented. If it meant she didn’t have to run from her study hall on the top floor all the way down to the main floor to eat, she was in.

Her first block was spent listening to Mrs. Adams - the only social studies teacher who actually seemed to enjoy teaching - ask everyone what their plans were for spring break. She loved to make the class hard as most of her students were either on the honor roll or enrolled in advanced placement classes, but Fridays were the one day a week when everyone got some reprieve from her constant stream of tests, exams, and droning lessons. By the time the bell rang, everyone had broken off into groups, writing out their plans for the week as their teacher sat at her desk with a smile, grading the last few papers on her computer. Vivien had made up a story on the fly, writing out her plans for the trip to California she told everyone she was going on, but as the bell rang, she closed her notebook and shoved it into her desk before grabbing her book for the next class and following her friend, Carter, down the hall toward the French class she had signed up for at the start of the semester.

Although she struggled a lot with the language - finding her old Spanish and German classes easier than French - the teacher commended her many times for at least trying. She wanted nothing more than to learn the language her boyfriend’s family knew, intending to surprise them on her trip. However, she knew her attempts were fairly futile. French just wasn’t her strong suit. Grateful her grade for the class wasn’t going to affect her final grades for the year, Vivien slumped into her chair in the middle of the room and hoped the class would go by faster than it usually did so that she could escape to the auditorium.

Thankfully, it seemed as though the teachers were of the same mindset as the students - eager to escape the concrete and stucco walls and leave for vacation. After answering a one-sided paper of questions in French about how their week had been, the teacher let them wander the halls, allowing Vivien to dump her books in her locker before making her way down to the auditorium. The auditorium was hardly ever used unless they had a guest speaker or a show being rehearsed, but the doors were almost always left unlocked, making it easy for Vivien to slip inside and make her way to the front row of chairs.

The auditorium would be empty for a while before the audition time came, but as Vivien had all the time in the world until her friend showed up, she didn’t mind the silence. Opening the notes app on her phone, she began typing out all of the things she would need to pack when she got home. Her list was already relatively short as she had put her essentials into her suitcase after using them that morning before school - her toiletries taking up the small pouch in the front of her luggage to leave room for the clothes she was still up in the air about. Although she knew that clothes weren’t really necessary as Mick had told her many times that she would be able to borrow period-typical clothes from them upon her arrival, she still needed to shove some summery clothing into her suitcase to make it seem as though her time had truly been spent in the California sun. 

With a sigh, Vivien realized she also needed to leave room for the souvenirs she would be bringing back and any potential shopping she did in either world. By the time she had whittled down her list to just necessities, her journal, and some extra changes of, well, every article of clothing she owned, people had begun to fill the auditorium, ascending the stage and beginning vocal warm-ups that would have impressed Sharpay Evans. Vivien tucked her earbuds in as the noise in the room began to grow, only pulling them out when Emily appeared in the seat next to her, excitedly tugging Vivien out of her shell and onto the stage with her as she rambled about the show they were going to be performing for the end of the school year.

Checking her blood pressure on her watch, Vivien sighed as the drama teachers, Mrs. Kaisla and Mr. Doyle, began telling everyone where to stand before giving them the run-down of the show. “As you all know by the posters in the halls,” Mr. Doyle began, “this year’s final show will be Hairspray.”

“I really want to play Tracy or Penny,” Emily squealed in a whisper mere inches from Vivien’s ear. Grabbing Vivien’s shirt in a fist, she added, “Imagine if Colby gets picked for Link or Seaweed - it would be perfect!”

Chuckling at the girl’s obvious crush on the dark-skinned football player who had been in their friend circles since kindergarten, Vivien whispered back, “I admire your enthusiasm, but is he the only reason you’re auditioning? I mean, you hate being the center of attention as much as I do being on stage; why would you wish for the lead?”

Emily’s sparkling smile faltered as Vivien’s words sunk in but quickly reappeared as the teachers wrapped up their short spiel about the show, “That’s why you’re here.”

“To make sure you don’t look like the worst performer here?” Vivien questioned teasingly.

Emily scoffed, elbowing Vivien in the arm, “Shut up. You’re not that bad.”

“Says you,” Vivien replied as Mrs. Kaisla began ushering some students toward center stage. As soon as she was sure neither she nor Emily were part of the group selected, she added, “There’s a reason I only ever sing in the car or the shower.”

With a sigh, Emily nudged her friend closer to the front of the stage and said, “And there’s a reason I asked you to come with me instead of literally anybody else. You have a beautiful voice. Besides, I need someone here who makes it easier to be in the spotlight. Now, shush!”

Vivien rolled her eyes but smiled as Emily hushed her, urging her to watch the others as they were instructed on what to do. Minutes flew by as the group took turns singing popular songs played over a bluetooth speaker one of the boys had brought to the school. Before she knew it, Vivien felt her stomach clench anxiously as her name was called, and Emily practically dragged her to the center of the stage. Taking a deep breath as the others took turns singing, Vivien tried to think of a song - any song - she could sing at least fairly well, but any titles she knew seemed to flee her brain as her mouth dried up as she resorted to biting the inside of her cheek to keep herself from fidgeting under the blazing lights.

As Emily’s choice - an 80s hit that had made an appearance in the last season of Stranger Things - began to play, Vivien realized just how doomed she was, and her mind flickered to the cell phone in her back pocket. Surely, her Spotify would have something she could work with, right? However, to her chagrin, as soon as the device was free of its jean prison, Vivien found the music had stopped playing, and she was forced to choose a song without any assistance. Had she really taken that long to decide? Clearing her throat, Vivien smiled tersely as she gave up the only song that had found its way to the front of her brain in time - ABBA’s Lay All Your Love On Me. 

The teachers she hardly knew seemed to smile as they talked amongst themselves, and although a part of her was sure they were talking about how easy the song was to mess up, Emily’s encouraging smile from the side of the stage somewhat assured her that all was fine. Closing her eyes as the music began playing, Vivien attempted to force her fears down as she sucked in a deep breath. All she had to do was get through a section of the song, and she would be free to leave as everyone else was. Pretending she was just singing in the car with Riven, Vivien allowed her voice to carry over the music, her enjoyment of the song obvious as she began to sway to the beat, the lyrics flowing out of her like water.

Once the chorus had left her, the music began to fade, allowing the teachers to be heard as they scribbled something on their clipboards. Looking up at her, Mrs. Kaisla smiled and said, “Thank you, Vivien. You’re free to go.”

“Remember to check the cast list when we come back to school,” Mr. Doyle added before gesturing toward the side of the stage, where Emily received her with a hug and a squeal.

The two made their exit relatively quickly, Vivien practically pushing Emily through the double doors so that she could find a source of oxygen in the halls. Once the auditorium doors had closed with a click, Vivien sighed, checking her blood pressure as a wave of anxiety-fueled dizziness washed over her. After making up a quick excuse as to where she was going, Vivien told Emily she would see her after lunch before making her way to her locker, where she kept her water bottle. Sitting on the floor by her locker, Vivien sipped at her water until the bell rang, forcing herself to calm down as she scrolled through Pinterest.

Before long, Jade and Riven appeared, having left the same class Vivien would have to attend after lunch - World History. They hauled her off of the floor, and Riven tossed his books into his locker before draping an arm around Vivien's shoulders and guiding her toward the stairs while Jade rattled off about the teacher - Mr. Smith - being the most boring teacher in the school. After retrieving Vivien's lunch from her father, she joined her friends at their usual table by the windows on the far wall of the cafeteria, spending their lunch block playing a segment of their Dungeons and Dragons campaign on their phones while eating. 

After a while of playing and eating, the bell rang, and they cleaned up their table before tossing Vivien's now empty lunch box into Erica's locker near the gym before saying goodbye to Riven and splitting off to their respective classes. For Vivien, the rest of her classes went by without a hitch, time flying by the way she had hoped all morning that it would. Once her final class of the day ended, Vivien sent a quick text to the group chat she and her siblings had created, telling them that she had to drop off her form for the battle bot tournament and would meet them at the car. Making her way from the top floor to her locker, Vivien gathered her belongings, shoving her water bottle and a small bag of Cheetos her Trigonometry teacher had given her into her backpack before slinging her backpack onto her shoulders.

Once she was back on the main floor, Vivien scurried across the hall, rounded the entrance to the office, and took the stairwell across from the vending machines down to the school's basement. As she descended the stairs, dampness and mildew filled her nostrils, making her nose wrinkle in disgust as she pushed the door to the bottom floor open. Hardly anyone visited the basement unless they had to, as there was little to see, but there were a select few who found comfort in the almost eerie silence and smell the basement offered. While the basement wasn't overly dark or dreary, it never quite felt warm enough to give off the same welcoming feeling the upper parts of the school gave. 

Perhaps it was the piercing white light of the fluorescents or the steady beeping from the computer lab that sounded almost exactly like a hospital heart monitor that kept people away, but regardless, there were only a handful of students who enjoyed the ominous, cold, almost abandoned feeling the basement radiated. Vivien was one of those odd students. After years of exploring abandoned buildings with Riven for his photography blog and her Instagram, the smell and cold environment of the school's basement did little to drive her away. If anything, it was almost calming.

There weren't many reasons for most students to visit the basement, as there were only three labs and two committees that met there. The chemistry, robotics, and computer laboratories were in a triangle-like formation at the very end of the hall, while the photography and student politics groups met at the other end of the hall, their rooms across from each other and sharing a single wall that was thin enough to hear conversations happening in the other room. Vivien hummed to herself as she stepped around an old projector that had been wheeled into the hallway, grinning fondly at the memory of having to haul the old machine up the stairs to the top floor for one of the summer school teachers while helping her dad out in the office. Stepping into the Bermuda Triangle of classrooms at the end of the hall, Vivien scanned the names beside the doors before making her way toward the left-most room.

The door to the robotics lab had been kept open with a hunk of metal the teacher, Mr. Kevin Hill, had welded in his free time one summer. Mr. Hill was one of Vivien's favorite teachers of all time. Mr. Hill was a short Irishman with a fondness for taking things apart and rebuilding them, something Vivien could appreciate. There were a few other students in the room - Vivien's bandmate, Erica; Damon Perry, a vitiligo-skinned freshman who hardly spoke around upperclassmen unless he was spoken to first; and Preston Osborne, a senior who thought his shit didn't stink because he had more money than he knew what to do with. 

Unlike the rest of the handful of rich kids at their school, Vivien had known Preston by extension for years. He had been something of a nightmare for the school system, using his daddy's reputation as a hotshot lawyer in the city to be a dick to anyone who dared push back against whatever he wanted. According to Erica and Jade, Preston wasn't horrible until middle school, when the older kids began picking on him. One threat of a lawsuit later, Preston officially became known as someone nobody wanted to trifle with. Over the years, Vivien had heard her father complain about the boy and had heard horror stories from teachers who'd had him, but Vivien hadn't known him personally until she became the youngest person from their school ever to win the regional battle bot championship. 

In her first year fighting back in seventh grade, she had beaten Preston by a long shot, her little, ladybug-shaped robot tearing Preston's robot apart with its electrified saws. Preston, of course, seemed incapable of taking the news well, having argued with the competition's judges until he was forced to either accept defeat or be disqualified. Ever since that day, Vivien found herself with an upperclassman who thought of her as nothing more than his arch-nemesis. Though she found him obnoxious after a while, Vivien hardly played into his made-up game of tug-of-war unless provoked, something that seemed to piss Preston off more instead of making him see how ridiculous he was being.

Rolling her eyes at the imbecile's glare, Vivien signed her name on the clipboard on the teacher's desk, taking a glance at the competition as she allowed her backpack to slide down from her shoulders. The robotics teacher was supposed to supervise from his desk as Erica, Preston, and Damon scoured the materials the teacher had laid out for them to take, but Damon had somehow managed to ask a question that kept the old Irishman talking while Erica and Preston searched the scrap bins the teacher had left out for them to rifle through. The bins would be there until the day of the competition, giving Vivien plenty of time to come up with a model and a mock-up before she started digging through the bins of scrap metal that, hopefully, wouldn't be sending anyone to the hospital for a tetanus shot that year.

As Mr. Hill stepped away from his conversation with Damon, he found Vivien standing by his desk as she dug through her backpack for the paper she swore she had left in the front of the biggest pouch. "Ah," the teacher began, "Miss O'Brian. I was wondering when you would show." 

Vivien peered over at the teacher and smiled before resuming her search, "Well, better late than never, right, Mr. H?" 

The graying man smiled with a short nod as he sat in his chair once again, "So far, I have only received a couple of sign-ups, so your competition from our school is looking rather small. Do you have an idea for what your battle bot will look like this year?" 

"You know I can't tell you, even if I do," Vivien stated as she tugged her permission slip out and handed it to the teacher. As Mr. Hill glanced over the paper with mild interest, Vivien stepped away from his desk and looked over some of the objects the teacher had prepared. She picked up a few metal pieces she could use for either a weapon or a protective shield and placed them in a plastic Walmart bag that Mr. Hill had left out for the students to use. "Besides, I wouldn't dare divulge my secrets to my enemies," Vivien claimed theatrically as she glanced around at the other students in the room. 

Erica leaned forward just enough to stick her tongue out at Vivien, placing a couple of springs in a plastic bag the teacher had given her. Damon simply smiled but kept quiet as he signed out a workshop tool that he'd need to return in the next two weeks. Vivien returned his smile and chuckled; in the few years she had known him, Damon had always seemed to be a very quiet, reserved person, but he seemed to come a little bit out of his shell when it came time for battles such as this one. However, as opposed to his silent competitors, Preston Osborne scoffed at Vivien and rolled his eyes as he turned toward the brunette. 

He used the wrench he was holding to point at Vivien, watching her with scrutiny as he spoke, "After last year's height requirement debacle, I doubt anybody would take your advice." 

"What?" Vivien began sarcastically, her voice taking on an infantilizing tone. "Are you still upset that mine was bigger than yours?" Ignoring the snorted bark of shocked laughter from her blue-haired friend, the brunette, never one to back down from a fight with the arrogant male, moved so she could look Preston as straight in the eye as her shorter stature would allow. "At least you could see mine in the ring. Everyone needed a pair of binoculars to see yours; it was so small." 

Preston stared down his nose at Vivien before chuckling condescendingly, "At least mine didn't need a judge to do a height check last minute." 

"Yeah, and? Who won that battle again?" Vivien asked rhetorically. Gasping dramatically, she placed a hand over her chest and answered her own question, "Oh, right! Me." 

"You just don't know when to shut up, do you?" Preston retorted with an arrogant scoff. Then, his voice lowered as he hissed, "My dad could sue the shit out of your family. I'd run you and your whole family out of town."

"I don't know who told you that, dipshit," Vivien laughed, "but your daddy's got no power here and neither do you. In fact, I bet your 'big city lawyer' father would love to hear all about how often you try to threaten people in this school. Threatening bodily harm is a potentially jailable offense, you know. I can see the headlines now!"

Vivien pretended to gag as Preston leaned closer, his breath polluting her face as he snarled, "That big mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble if you don't shut it."

"If you think my mouth is big, I feel bad for your girlfriend." Vivien paused, gave a mock gasp, then added, "Oh, wait, you don't have one. Do you, shrimp dick?"

"Look, you little bitch, I-"

"Mister Osborne, Miss O'Brian," Mr. Hill interrupted, rising from his seat before the argument could get any worse. "I believe this argument will get you nowhere. Mr. Osborne, as you have already gathered your things, I suggest you sign out any tools you may need and leave before this ends up as another after-school detention for you. Miss O'Brian, please continue looking around for any particular parts you may need." 

Vivien nodded and waited for Preston to back down and storm off before she resumed her perusing, allowing the teacher to handle Preston as he approached the desk. Mr. Hill was one of the teachers who always formed his own opinions of the children who came into his class, regardless of their notoriety. The man didn't care about who the kids' parents were; he would treat him the same way he would treat any student. Vivien knew from Riven's occasional photography classes at the community college that Mr. Hill had taken opportunities to float around the different universities in the area, teaching robotics and photography when he wished; if he got fired from this school for not babying Preston or some other Karen's spawn, it probably wouldn't be a hard blow. Maybe that was why Vivien, Erica, and most of the other students who didn't like Preston liked Mr. Hill so much. 

Soon, but not soon enough, Preston left and took his bags with him, and Erica flipped him off as he disappeared down the hallway. Turning toward the grinning Vivien, she beamed, "Bitch, you handled him so much better than I would have." 

Vivien smiled as she tossed a handful of small springs into her wagon. "Thanks. I just- I can't stand him."

"Who can other than his parents?" Erica scoffed, "His head's so far up his own ass, I'm surprised he can walk straight."

"I have to agree with you," Mr. Hill piped in as he sat back in his seat. "Although Preston makes fair marks as far as I am aware, he rides on his father's reputation to keep himself above everyone else. Though, as a teacher, I must advise you change your approach, a couple of wounds to his pride will, hopefully, do him well over time." 

"I doubt he'll change," Vivien said, shaking her head, as she examined a small shell-shaped piece that could be used as a cover for her robot. 

The teacher returned to the book he had been reading, and Erica nodded in agreement before taking a battery holder and putting it inside her bag. She looked at Vivien's bag and shook her head at how much the younger girl had already stored away. "Well, I'm looking forward to being annihilated by you again this year, as always." 

Vivien knew the other girl was only joking, as Erica had told her before that she only entered the battles for fun and found it interesting to see how far she could get. With a smile, Vivien chirped, "And I look forward to annihilating you, as always." 

Erica laughed, giving Vivien a quick hug before leaving, claiming she and Jade were getting a ride to work from one of the girls on the cheer team who worked at the mall with them. Once her friend was gone, Vivien went back to picking out parts for her robot, picking out items she thought could be of use and tucking them into the bag that had begun to weigh her arm down. The brunette spent another handful of minutes in the classroom before deciding she had enough things. As she placed her heavy bag inside another, she tied the handles in a knot and said, "Well, Mr. Hill, I believe I'll be on my way." 

"Actually, Miss O'Brian, I have to go over the rules for the battles before you leave," the teacher claimed, tucking a bookmark into the novel he was reading before pulling a paper from his desk drawer. "Normally, I would wait until I have you in class, but since we won't be back in school until after spring break, now is as good a time as any." 

Vivien accepted the paper from the teacher, reading over the first couple of rules before nodding to herself. "Did they change them or something?" 

"Not exactly." Mr. Hill stood and made his way around the desk, sitting on the other side of the surface as he pointed out some of the notes at the bottom of the page. "The officials are new this year. They've agreed to keep the three-foot height acceptance, but they've eliminated the use of robotic arms that can be used to puncture another robot from the maximum height - as you can see here." 

"Let me guess, that rule was made because of my robot from last year?" Vivien pondered. 

"That would be my guess as well," the teacher agreed with a grin. "While that robot of yours was quite impressive, you have to keep it short if that's your plan this year." 

Vivien shook her head, knowing that wasn't her idea at all. She liked to change things up every year, never showcasing the same attack twice. Thinking for a moment, Vivien scanned over the jumbled nonsense on the page that she would probably hand off to Mick the moment she saw her and asked, "Are saws and shields still allowed?" 

"Yes, of course," Mr Hill said, nodding insistently. "It would be very hard to take that ruling out. Just remember that you need to have your robot done by the first of June. The following week, the judges will go through the ruling process. Any final adjustments will have to be made before the end of the school day on Friday, the ninth. The first day of battles will be Saturday, and Sunday will be finals and awards, as per usual." 

Vivien allowed herself a brief moment to process the information before nodding, a smile lighting her face as she spoke, "That sounds good to me." Picking up her backpack from the floor, Vivien folded and tucked the paper into the pocket of her jeans and headed out of the classroom. It wasn't until she was near the stairwell that she heard her name being called again. Turning toward the voice, she found Mr. Hill standing in the doorway of his classroom. "Yeah?" she called in return. 

"Just something I meant to tell you before you left." The teacher held his book up a little, a gesture that made Vivien believe he was going to quote something from it, yet, without looking down, he began speaking once more. "Those who are willing to work hard - day in and day out - to achieve their goals are the true winners, regardless of the scores or the judges' opinions. I don't doubt that you are one of those hard-working people, Vivien; you know what you're doing. Your skills never cease to amaze me, and I hope you prove me right again this year." 

With a raised brow, Vivien asked, "Prove you right, sir?"

"I've been an AP Robotics teacher here for twenty-three years," Mr Hill said. "It's not often that I have someone in my class throughout junior and senior high school. Other teachers said I  should have booted you down to the regular class with Miss Denis, but since the day you first walked into my class, I knew you had potential. Since then, you've proved them wrong every step of the way. I commend you for that."

Vivien stood in place for a moment, stunned at her teacher's kind words. "Thanks, Mr Hill. I won't let you down." 

"I know you won't, Miss O'Brian. You never do. Have a nice evening," he replied before turning back to his book and stepping back over to his desk, leaving Vivien standing alone in the hallway. 

Vivien stared at the spot Mr. Hill had previously occupied, letting out an airy laugh as a brilliant smile found its way onto her face. Taking in a deep breath, she straightened her posture and turned toward the stairs, propelling herself up them with newfound confidence. Her bag of assorted metal bits jangled, clanking together in a symphony of scrapes and tings as she ascended the stairs. Once she had reached the main floor, Vivien retrieved her lunch box from Erica's locker. The girl's four-digit code - 8104, Erica's birthdate and year combined - was one of the many Vivien kept in her notes app in case her friends ever forgot them, and even though she was sure Erica couldn't possibly forget her locker combination, Vivien enjoyed knowing that, if her friends needed her to, she could help them.

After tugging the lunch box out from the chaos that was Erica's locker, Vivien rushed to the office, saying a quick goodbye to her dad before heading to the main entrance, pushing open the first set of doors before lifting the hood of her jacket over her head and hoping her siblings had gotten the spare key to her car from their father as rain poured from above. Shoving open the door to the outside world, Vivien watched as rain slammed down in sheets, taking a deep breath before bolting into the freezing rain, letting out a shrill screech as she scurried across the parking lot to her car. She threw the door open and jumped inside, grateful her siblings had already started the car's heater, as she slammed the door shut behind her.

Abby smirked at her sister's reflection in the rear-view mirror as Vivien shivered in her seat, and with a snort, she asked, "Bit chilly, sissy?"

Turning back toward her little sister, Vivien nodded and sighed, "You could say that." Hauling her backpack and Walmart bag of metal parts over the gap between her seat and Oliver's, Vivien asked, "Can you hold onto these for me, Abs?"

Peering back as Abby placed Vivien's belongings on the seat next to her, Oliver asked, "You're doing the championship again this year?"

"When doesn't she, Olly?" Abby asked rhetorically as Vivien backed out of her parking spot. "She fights every year, and every year, she wins."

"I know that; I'm not stupid," Oliver retorted.

"Debatable," Abby shrugged.

Ignoring his twin, Oliver said, "I just thought that, since she was going on vacation, she wouldn't be participating this year."

"I'll have plenty of time," Vivien claimed, putting the car into drive and steering it toward the parking lot's exit. "Besides, I'll be with Mickie for a whole week. If my battle bot isn't at least halfway done by the time I get back, then one of us either got sick, somehow got pregnant, or died."

Oliver let out a snort, "I mean, fair enough, but aren't you going to do anything fun while you're in California?"

"Building things is fun," Vivien retorted, flicking on her turn signal and glancing both ways before pulling out of the parking lot, "but yeah, we're going to the beach, checking out some museums, and we might visit Disneyland if  we have the time."

Leaning forward between the front seats, Abby asked, "How is it possible that Oliver and I might have a more entertaining spring break than you?"

Sparing a glance at her siblings, Vivien asked, "What do you mean?"

With a smile bright enough to put the sun to shame, Oliver announced, "I'm going with Markus' family to New Jersey so we can check out that American Dream place with the indoor water park and ski slope."

"Really?" Vivien asked. Muttering more to herself than anything, she added, "I'm surprised Mom allowed that after you broke your ankle the last time you went on a trip with them."

Abby hummed in agreement before speaking, "And I'm going with Brynna's family to Great Wolf Lodge for her birthday."

"Those sound fun and all," Vivien admitted, "but how is that more fun than literally going across the country?"

"Because you're going to be doing nerd shit while on vacation while we're having actual fun," Oliver stated blandly.

As the car slowed to a stop at a red light, Vivien turned toward her brother with a knowing look, "You say that like you won't be spending hours upon hours researching some cryptid or something with Markus in the hotel room." Peering in the rear-view mirror, Vivien found Abby's gaze and said, "And, Abby, we all know that you and Brynna will spend your time playing with her little siblings instead of just hanging out."

Abby opened her mouth to argue but quickly shut it again as she let out a soft sigh, "Yeah, I guess you're right." 

"Just because it's spring break doesn't mean we somehow magically turn into party animals once we're on vacation," Vivien claimed with a shrug as the light turned green, and she continued onward. "We've been ingrained to be responsible regardless of where we are, but I'm sure we'll all still have fun being boring with our friends."

Although they constantly joked about going to big house parties at their friends' houses and getting absolutely trashed on whatever alcohol they could find, none of the O'Brian siblings had actually ever gone to a big house party or willingly gotten drunk. Most of the people at their school weren't interested in big parties either as it would be increasingly difficult to get all of their friends in one town. Since their school was regional, kids from towns almost an hour away would be shuttled in on the handful of school-choice buses, making it hard for big parties to really be a thing. Besides, many, if not all, of the friends the O'Brians had made at the school were relatively introverted kids who cared more about their studies than getting wasted, making their running joke of getting drunk with their friends even more preposterous.

Abby peered out the window at the rain as Oliver said, "You know, I kind of like that we're boring."

"Oh, yeah?" Vivien asked, glancing at her brother as she checked whether or not she could cross through the intersection.

"Mhm," Abby nodded in agreement.

"It means our parents let us hang out with pretty much anyone without really caring," Oliver claimed. "Even if our plans were to go out and do dumb stuff at a friend's house, they wouldn't think anything of us going over there."

Abby thought for a moment before saying, "That's true, but we also would feel pretty bad if we took their trust in us for granted."

This time, it was Vivien's turn to hum in agreement, "Yeah."

For the first time since her parents gave her permission to join their neighbors in their house in California, Vivien felt wary about her decision. Although she knew that they had no qualms about her going to California as they had known the Birch family longer than Vivien had been alive, they had no idea about the other universe they would be taking her to. She had no plans of telling them about it as she had promised to keep it a secret from literally everyone she knew, but the thought that she was, for the first time in her life, taking advantage of her parents' trust to go off galavanting in a world they had no idea about. Even though she had no plans of doing anything wrong or illegal while there, a knot began to form in her stomach at the idea of letting her parents down for keeping such a large secret from them.

Taking a deep breath as she pulled onto their street, Vivien pushed her thoughts aside, allowing her excitement to fill her once more. She could worry about it later when she had Mick to talk her through every insignificant problem her mind could sprout up. For now, she had to get ready for the trip, and with a limited amount of time to get all of her clothes folded, she needed to focus on that. As Vivien's blue Kona pulled into the driveway, their mother stepped outside with a few umbrellas, making her way to the end of the walkway and waiting for Viviebn's car to stop. As soon as the car was in park, Chelsea held her umbrella over the passenger's door and opened it, handing her son an umbrella as he stepped out with his backpack.

Wrapping her cardigan tightly around herself, Abby tapped Vivien's arm and said, "I'll take your metal stuff in so it doesn't get wet."

"Are you sure?" Vivien asked in return as Abby handed her the purple backpack she had kept an eye on during the trip home. "I can take it."

"That's okay," she replied. Once the front passenger's door closed, she quickly took hold of the Walmart bag's handles and added, "I don't think Mom bothered to bring out your umbrella, and I don't want them to get wet."

Hoping to save her sister from having to lug the heavy bag inside, Vivien tried to gently argue, "I'm parking in the garage, Abs, it's not a long walk to the door."

"That's okay," Abby shrugged. "I've already got it. I'll bring it up to your room for you."

Before Vivien could say anything to the contrary, Abby grinned, pushed open her door, and slid out, taking and opening the umbrella her mom handed her before slamming the door and rushing to the house with their mother not far behind. Left with her mouth still open, Vivien breathed, "Thanks," before shaking her head fondly and pressing the button to open the garage. Once her car was parked in the spot furthest from the door, Vivien slid out of her seat, pulling her backpack with her. Glancing out at the pouring rain, the brunette sighed, hauling her backpack onto one shoulder and gripping her keys in her free hand as she rushed into the downpour with a squeal, closing the overhead door with a single click as she raced toward the front door of the house.

Once inside, she closed the door, grateful for the warmth of the house, as she trudged her way to the coat closet and began taking off her now-soaked sneakers. Loki soon joined her on the floor, licking the water from her cheeks as she tossed her sneakers onto the drying rack alongside her siblings' shoes. Running her hands through the dog's fur, Vivien felt herself calm as she thanked the dog for his warm welcome. Pushing herself from the floor, Vivien ascended the stairs with her backpack and her Saint Bernard, grateful her bedroom was near the landing, as Loki shoved his way into her room and onto her bed. With a sigh, Vivien rolled her eyes at the oversized puppy and dropped her backpack onto the floor at the end of her bed, plopping herself onto her mattress as she debated how much time she had to pack.

Not even a minute into her procrastination party, Abby stepped into the room without so much as a knock, snickering at her older sister's dawdling as she passed by. "You know, lying there like a limp spaghetti noodle isn't going to help your bags get packed."

"Okay, Mom," Vivien huffed with a smirk, missing the way Abby visibly winced at being compared to their mother. Taking in a heavy breath, Vivien pushed herself from the bed and sighed, "Is it weird that I'm not ready for this now that I'm leaving?"

"Not really," Abby shrugged as her sister entered the closet and pulled her suitcase down from the top shelf. "You get this way before out-of-state competitions too."

"This is different from comps," Vivien said as she placed her suitcase on the end of her bed and opened the shell. "I don't usually go far without you guys."

Stepping up behind her sister, Abby placed a hand on the older girl's back and smiled once she had Vivien's attention, "You'll have tons of fun and you know it. I'm sure you'll forget all about us once you land."

"That's impossible, Abs," Vivien breathed, pulling the lighter-haired brunette into a hug. "I love you guys too much to not miss you."

Lifting her head enough to see her sister's face, Abby replied, "Trust me, you'll be sick of us by the end of the week. Dad will keep you updated with pictures of Loki every morning like he does when we go to camp, I'll send you pictures of the lodge and everything interesting I see, and I'm sure Olly will send you paragraphs of random facts he and Markus found online while they're away. By the end of vacation, you'll be so sick of us that you'll want to get away the minute you come home."

Vivien laughed, "Probably, yeah."

Stepping out of her sister's hold, Abby grinned and said, "Now, come on, we have packing to do."

Allowing her sister to take the reins, Vivien headed into her closet to figure out what clothes she wanted to bring, hauling her plastic bins of summer clothes down from the top shelf as Abby headed into her en-suite bathroom to pack up the essentials Vivien had typed out on her phone. Once Vivien had fished out a handful of clothes she wanted to bring, she brought them to her desk and dropped them in a heap in her chair. By the time Abby finished getting stuff out of the bathroom and into the suitcase, Vivien was halfway done folding her clothes, something Abby had helped finish in record time. After reassuring her sister that she would be borrowing swimwear from Mick's closet upon her arrival, Vivien threw a couple of pairs of shoes into the mesh pouch on the lid alongside her journal and the astronaut-shaped galaxy projector she kept on her bedside table as a nightlight.

With her packing done quicker than she had anticipated, Vivien sent a text to Mick that she was all set before grabbing a dry hoodie from her closet and hauling the suitcase to the main floor of the house, leaving it near the coat closet so that she could slip on some shoes and get out the door as quickly as possible. Once everything was in place, she and Loki joined her siblings in the living room, where Oliver had begun setting up Mario Kart on the Switch. Sitting in the space the twins had left for her, Vivien took the purple joy-con from the coffee table and slouched into the comfort of the couch cushions as Loki took his place on the floor by her feet.

As she chose her usual character, Yoshi, Vivien's phone dinged, and she pulled it out of her pocket, giving her siblings the chance to argue over who got Baby Bowser. Unlocking her phone, she opened her dad's text and smiled. Peering over Abby's head to where their mother was leaning against the kitchen counter, sipping at her freshly-made smoothie while she presumably scrolled through her Facebook, Vivien rolled her eyes and went back to her conversation, thanking their dad for his offer of dinner and asking if he could pick them up their usual McDonald's orders before tucking her phone between her thigh and the couch and picking up her joy-con once again. Breaking up her siblings' argument with ease, Vivien started the game. Once they figured out who got which character, the three of them quickly got immersed in their battle for the first place.

As Oliver overtook Vivien for second place in Coconut Mall, leading the oldest of the siblings to cuss him out and jab him with her elbow, the front door slammed shut, alerting the whole house to the new visitor. Loki let out a bark as he rose from the floor, abandoning his post as the protector in favor of following the smell of french fries and cheeseburgers to the front door. The kids called out greetings to their father as they entered the final lap of their race, getting a chuckled response as Damien made his way through the entryway to the kitchen. Damien set the flimsy drink tray and paper bags plastered with golden arches on the kitchen counters, ignoring the look his ex-wife sent him as he began pulling fries and boxes from the bags and setting them out according to which family member had ordered what.

By the time the kids had finished their race, Chelsea had begun arguing with Damien about the quality of the food he had brought home, but the man seemed unbothered by her attitude, pushing aside her frustrations as the children approached. Stepping aside to allow them access to their meals, Damien accepted quick hugs from each of his children and asked them how their school days had been before following them to the living room. As Abby began to explain how her usually strict English teacher had them watch a movie as he had a migraine, Vivien sat cross-legged in her usual space on the far end of the couch and put one of the throw pillows over her lap so that the plate she put her food onto wouldn't fall.

After her siblings had rambled about their days, Damien turned to Vivien and asked, "What about you, babygirl? Anything fun happen today?"

Vivien shrugged, swallowing her mouthful of french fries before replying, "Not really. I signed up for the battle bot tournament after class."

Before her father could say anything, Abby butted in, "Alix said they saw you at the first round of auditions for the musical. I told them there was no way 'cause you hate being on stage, but they said it was true."

"It was," Vivien admitted before taking a bite of her burger.

Oliver choked on his chicken nugget, coughing a few times before swallowing thickly and asking, "Wait, seriously?"

Nodding, Vivien dipped her sandwich in a pile of ketchup and said, "Yeah. Emily wanted to audition, but didn't want to go alone, so I stepped in. It's not that big of a deal."

"It's a huge deal!" Abby squawked, twisting so that she could see her sister better. "Alix said the drama teachers were thinking of cancelling the other auditions because of you."

"Bull," Vivien scoffed, carefully avoiding the rest of her accusatory cuss as she felt the growing heat of her mother's gaze. "It wasn't even a meaningful audition. I sang some ABBA and ran for the hills; there's nothing impressive about that."

"But Alix said-"

"Alix could have heard wrong," Vivien argued, cutting off her sister's statement before it could spiral out of control. "Besides, even if they do choose me - which they won't - I'll just step down and let the understudy take whatever role I get."

"That would be for the best," Chelsea stated as she stabbed her fork into the grilled chicken salad her ex-husband had bought for her. "We've all seen how you get on stage at your grandparent's camp; putting you in any leading role in front all those people would be so much worse."

Ignoring their mother's statement with a roll of his eyes, Oliver turned to Vivien and said, "You can't back down."

Vivien grinned, sending her brother a curious look as she asked, "Why not?"

"Because!"

"That's not a reason, Olly."

"But it is," Oliver claimed. "We've all heard you sing in the car and you love theatre. This is your chance to see what it's like on Boadway."

"Who says I want to be on Broadway?" Vivien asked with a laugh.

Oliver thought for a moment before saying, "Well, nobody, but-"

"But the school is petitioning to get the Titanic Musical for the April show next year," Damien piped up, eyeing his eldest daughter out of his peripheral vision as she froze, her handful of ketchup-soaked french fries hanging in midair as she processed his claim. Smirking, he added, "If you have at least one show under your belt, they might consider you for one of the primary roles when the time comes."

Excitedly watching the wheels turn in Vivien's head, Abby grabbed her sister's free wrist and wiggled it as she said, "See! If you back down now, you'll never get to be in Titanic next year."

Vivien sighed, green eyes shifting from mild annoyance to fondness as she turned to her younger sister and slipped her fingers between Abby's, "As much as I would love that, there's no chance of me getting the lead."

"Would you at least try out for Titanic next year?" Oliver asked. "That would be right up your alley."

With a snort, Chelsea chortled, "She would probably spend all her time critiquing the accuracy of everything."

"Actually," Vivien began, finding a sliver of courage to meet her mother's gaze, "the show is fairly accurate when it comes to representing the people aboard the ship that night. The historical details are only slightly manipulated to add more drama, and-"

"See," Chelsea began, glancing between her children and ex-husband, "she's already at it."

Abby opened her mouth to argue, but Vivien's grip on her hand tightened, telling her to back down before things could get worse. Abby's bluish-brown eyes found Vivien's emerald gaze, and with a shake of her head, Abby resigned, returning to her food with a barely audible sigh. Refusing to let their last family dinner before spring break be soured by the cutthroat words of his ex-wife, Damien took the remote from the coffee table and switched the input back to the Roku before letting the kids decide between two of the movies on their watchlist - The Outsiders and The Truman Show.

With the rather unanimous vote of The Truman Show, the family settled in once more and relaxed as they watched Jim Carrey's character come to life. Not long into the movie, Abby shifted between Vivien and their father, and it wasn't long before she was sprawled out over the two with her head on Vivien's lap and her legs on their dad's. Once Abby had settled into a comfortable position, Vivien began absentmindedly running her fingers through the girl's lighter hair, calming both of them at once as Truman watched his dad get shoved into a bus and taken away. However, further into the movie, as Truman began drawing a spacesuit around his reflection, Vivien's phone began to ring, and she quickly stood, shoving a somewhat disgruntled Abby off her lap and taking her trash with her to the kitchen before answering the phone. 

After checking the caller ID, she smiled, tossed her trash into the bin next to the refrigerator, and quietly said, "Please tell me you're on your way."

A snort came from the other end as Mick replied, "Hello to you, too. I mean, damn, child, are you that willing to run away from home?"

Vivien glanced at her family and chuckled, "Maybe a little."

"Well, good," Mick replied. "We're pulling into the driveway now, so come out when you're ready."

Snickering to herself, Vivien said, "I thought you already knew I was bi, Mickie."

"Look, rugrat," Mick snipped, though Vivien could clearly hear the humor in her tone. "We're parked by the garage, but bring a rain coat or something; it's pouring."

"Still?"

"Yup."

Vivien sighed, "Alright, I'll be out in a few." She sucked in a deep breath and smiled to herself as Mick hung up her end of the call. Vivien headed back to the living room and grinned as she noticed Oliver holding the remote, keeping the movie paused until her return. Ruffluing her brother's hair, she cooed, "Aww, Olly-bear! Did you pause the movie just for me?"

Shoving her hand away, Oliver ran his hand through his hair and scoffed, "No, I just didn't want to have to rewind it for you."

"Yeah, sure," Abby drawled sarcastically as she punched her twin's thigh.

Chuckling as the twins began arguing over Oliver's ability - or lack thereof - to show kindness, Damien twisted in his seat, found Vivien's gaze, and asked, "Was that Mick and her parents?"

"Yeah, they just pulled up," Vivien nodded, glancing toward the front door.

With a smile, he asked, "Are you ready to go, babygirl?"

Vivien excitedly nodded, but her excitement seemed to dim as Chelsea asked, "Go where, exactly?"

"To California," Vivien explained. "You know, for spring break?"

"I never said you could go," Chelsea stated, finally looking up from her phone with steely eyes. "A trip like that requires planning, and I highly doubt you, of all people, are prepared to fly three thousand miles across the country for a week in some random city you've never been to."

Before Vivien could argue, Damien turned to his ex and said, "She asked both of us months ago, and, actually, she's had everything planned out since I gave her permission. Vivien's a smart girl; she wouldn't jump into something without proper planning."

"She even helped Abs and I plan our trips with our friends," Oliver piped up.

Placing a hand on her dad's shoulder and glancing toward her brother, Vivien thanked him with a smile before turning toward their mom and saying, "And, since Dad gave me permission, I can go, right, Mom?"

Chelsea took in a deep breath, glancing between Damien and Vivien with a stare that would end wars, but finally, she picked up her phone and huffed, "Fine. Go."

Hoping to get out the door before her mother could change her mind again, Vivien began making her way to the door, only to hear footsteps rushing up behind her. Turning, Vivien smiled as Abby and Oliver jogged up to her, Abby wrapping her in a hug as Oliver stood to the side with a grin. Squeezing her older sister, Abby pleaded, "Take lots of pictures for me, sissy."

Letting out a breath of a laugh, Vivien waited until Abby stepped back before taking her keys from the hook by the door and pushing them into the palm of her sister's hand. At Abby's confused look, she said, "Can you put them in your lockbox for me? I don't want Mom to use my car while I'm gone just 'cause it has lower mileage than hers."

Nodding in understanding, Abby softly asked, "Do you want your diary in there too?"

Vivien shook her head, "I'm taking it with me, but thank you."

Oliver shuffled closer, hinting at his desire for a final hug before his oldest sister's departure as he asked, "What about your fancy rocks?"

Wrapping her arms around Oliver's shoulders, she replied, "I took a few with me, but I doubt Mom will do anything with them because most of the ones I left are big and would be obvious if they went missing."

"If you're sure," Oliver mumbled into Vivien's shoulder before patting her back and slipping out of her grasp.

Once she took a step back, Vivien reached into her pocket and pulled out two colorful crystals, holding one out to either of her siblings, "For Abby, some charoite. It's good for keeping away negativity and helping you see a new side of yourself. Hopefully, it'll help you relax while you're away."

Abby smiled at the purple rock, shifting it in the light to see the different hues before thanking her sister and pocketing the crystal. Then, with a roll of his eyes and a smirk, Oliver accepted the smooth green lump and said, "Let me guess, this is some hard-to-pronounce rock too."

"Actually, no," Vivien snickered. "It's green aventureine and it's good for creativity, luck, and opportunities. I figured, with all the activities you'll be doing, and the theories you'll be picking apart, it would be nice to take with you."

Rolling the crystal around in his palm, Oliver allowed his smirk to spread into a smile as he handed Vivien her raincoat and said, "Have fun in Cali, Vivi."

Vivien smiled but didn't have the chance to respond as her father entered the room and said, "She will. Brady and Mack reassured me that they had a fun week planned."

Finding her dad's tired eyes, Vivien slotted herself in his arms and asked, "Will you be alright here without us for a week?"

"I'll be fine," Damien claimed as he ran a soothing hand over Vivien's hair. "Your mother is going on one of her work trips on Monday, so I'll be alone most of the time you kids are away."

Peering up at her father, Vivien smiled, "A week of empty-nesting, huh? That'll be interesting for you."

Damien pressed a kiss to Vivien's forehead and smiled, "It'll be over before I know it. Now, do you have everything?" Vivien nodded. "Are you sure? You've got your toothbrush, hairbrush?"

"I'm sure, Dad," Vivien chuckled. "And, before you ask, yes, I have the taser pen Riven's dad gave me. I took the batteries out and everything, just like he taught me."

Nodding, Damien sighed, "Good. I know I'm overthinking this, but I don't want you to be in a strange city without protection."

"I know," Vivien said with a knowing smirk. "And I don't blame you. It would be stupid of me to go without anything."

Damien hummed before smiling at his oldest girl, "I had your sister sneak something into your bag from the three of us, but promise me you won't open it until you get where you're going and have the chance to settle in."

Glancing at her sister, wondering when she could have slipped something into her luggage, Vivien smiled and said, "I won't, I promise."

"Good," he said, more for himself than his daughter. Then, patting her arm, Damien told Vivien, "Alright, well, get going before I chicken out."

"Alright, alright," Vivien snickered as she rolled her eyes up at her dad. "I'm going."

Allowing his daughter to step away and pull the zipper of her raincoat up as far as it would go, Damien pulled up her suitcase handle and held it out for her to take as he breathed, "Have fun, sweetheart."

"I'll try."

Placing a hand over Vivien's, he smiled, "You will." Once Vivien nodded in agreement, he requested, "Let us know when you land, okay?"

"Of course," Vivien beamed, anticipation bubbling up in her chest as she nodded excitedly. "I'll let you know when we get to their house too."

As Oliver opened the door and Vivien stepped out, Abby said, "I'll let Mom know you said goodbye."

Vivien crossed the threshold of the house and dragged her luggage with her, waving to the Birches and saying, "Thanks. I'll see you guys in ten days."

"Have fun!" Abby called as Vivien rushed through the rain to the Birch family's minivan.

"Enjoy the sun!" Damien said as Brady helped Vivien haul her suitcase into the trunk before closing it.

"Don't get wasted on the beach!" Oliver added, earning him a middle finger from his oldest sister and a tap on the back of the head from their dad. "What?" he asked rhetorically as Vivien hopped into the van and rolled the window down. "I'm just saying."

As the vehicle began to roll down the driveway, Vivien leaned out as far as the seatbelt would allow and yelled, "Love you!"

As her family called back in kind, Vivien rolled up the window and relaxed in her seat, earning a chuckle from Mick as the older brunette greeted her, "You look like a wet dog."

Laughing breathlessly, Vivien pushed her stringy, wet bangs away from her forehead and sighed, "I probably smell like one too, to be honest with you."

Mick pretended to sniff the air before grinning, "Only a little bit."

Vivien smiled and tipped her head to the side, finding Mick's gaze as she sighed, "I hope I don't look like a drowned rat when Royce sees me."

Mack laughed from the passenger's seat, leaning over the center console to see Vivien as she reassured her, "You won't, sweetheart. We'll make sure of it."

"I mean," Brady drawled as he pulled out onto the main roads, seemingly weighing his options until Mack slapped his arm with the back of her hand.

"Brady!"

"Kidding!" the man chuckled, somewhat proud of his playful jibe as the girls in the backseat snickered.

Vivien sighed contentedly as she relaxed into the van's faded, somewhat worn fabric seats, "I've missed this."

"You won't be saying that for long," Mack claimed. "By the end of the first week, you'll be begging us to send you home."

"Doubtful," Vivien replied with a smile. The idea of spending any length of time in the world Mick had been talking her ear off about since the day she discovered it back in December had been like something of a fantasy for Vivien. Now that she actually had the chance to see the places in her friends' pictures, the thought of cutting her stay short for anything other than the most dire circumstances was bizarre. "I'm pretty sure you'll have to drag me away kicking and screaming."

"Well, we certainly won't be doing that," Brady laughed.

"Yeah," Mick agreed, taking Vivien's hand with a brilliant smile. "You can stay there with us for as long as you want."

"And time here won't change, right?" Vivien recounted.

"Right," Mack agreed. "That machine will allow you to stay as long as you like without anything changing."

Mick nodded, watching Vivien's thoughtful eyes flicker behind her circular frames as she explained, "We turn the time control mechanism off while we're in this world so that they can enjoy life normally there, but we freeze time here so that we can enjoy things without having to go back and forth to pay bills and stuff like that."

Vivien grinned, "Like taking random teenagers into different dimensions without their parents feeling the need to call everypolice department in the tate to see if they can send out search parties?"

"I guess you could say that," Brady snorted as he pulled onto the turnpike and pressed the gas pedal further toward the floor.

The conversation seemed to split from there as Mack pulled up the directions to the airport on her phone, telling Brady to slow down before they reached a particular spot the state troopers liked to park in order to catch people speeding on the turnpike. Watching trees and distant buildings fly by as the car sped up, Vivien pulled her phone out of her pocket and unlocked the Discord chat she had with her bandmates, sending them a selfie of herself and Mick before hastily typing a message about them finally being on the road.

Erica was the first to respond - her text of "bitch, you bettr not become a fuckign valley girl!" appearing just before Riven's "Have fun, Pip! Don't get eaten by a shark; I need you for comp" and followed soon after by Jade's ever-calm message of, "ignore their bs. we love you. stay safe. xoxo." Vivien snickered as the trio began blowing up her phone; Erica starting an argument with Riven about sharks being harmless while also telling Jade to fuck off for being the responsible one.

"You good over there?" Mick asked, her humor evident as Vivien glanced up from her phone.

Holding out the device and leaning over so that they could both watch the drama unfold, Vivien explained, "Erica's being a bitch, Riven is a sarcastic shit, and Jade's acting like a mother hen, so Erica picked a fight with both of them."

Mick watched as Erica sent a wall of text that only consisted of the middle finger emoji, snickering, "So, a normal day, then?"

"Pretty much," Vivien agreed. As they watched conversation bubbles appear and Erica's rant spiral into nonsense, her smile faltered. She would miss them while she was away. Even when her family went on vacations, Riven would go with them, and she could text the girls anytime she wanted. This time, her ability to message them and ask them for advice on things would be revoked the minute she entered the other world. With a heavy sigh, she admitted, "I'm going to miss them."

Taking in the girl's expression, Mick reached up and placed a hand on Vivien's back, rubbing circles into her plastic raincoat as she said, "It'll suck for a few days, but after a while, you sort of get used to it."

Peering up at the older girl, Vivien allowed herself to smile, "You're talking from experience, aren't you?"

"Sadly," Mick confirmed. "My instincts were to take pictures of everything to show my friends when I got back, but then I realized I couldn't. It took a while to adjust and my phone is still full of pictures nobody else has seen, but after a while, I got used to just saving the memories for myself."

Nodding in understanding, Vivien breathed, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I can send them some pictures when I get back, but until then, I can keep them to myself."

Pivoting in her seat, Mick turned toward Vivien and asked, "So, what are your plans for Royce? Are we doing a casual surprise where you just walk in and say hi or are we doing something grand in front of everyone?"

"I don't know," Vivien shrugged. "I haven't really given it a lot of thought. I was more concerned about my mom keeping me from going."

"Well, now we've got time to think it through!" Mick exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

“Not much time,” Mack explained. “We’ll be at the airport in about five, maybe ten minutes, and since we have a private flight, we’ll be in the air within the hour.”

“You guys never told me you have a private jet,” Vivien stated. “Like, I knew you guys had money, but damn.”

“It’s not ours,” Mick shrugged.

“One of my friends from school became a pilot,” Brady explained. “He’s offered us free trips whenever we need it since he knows how often we travel to the East coast and it gives him the opportunity to visit some family of his in Vermont.”

Vivien hummed, more to herself than to anyone in the vehicle, “That’s nice of him.”

After a moment of relative silence, Mick patted Vivien’s hand and told her, “Anyway, regardless of what you decide to do, Royce will be surprised.”

“You think?” Vivien asked. “I thought someone would have told him by now.”

Mick shook her head emphatically, beaming proudly as she explained, “Actually, I haven’t told anybody that you’re coming.”

Vivien’s eyes glittered with excitement as she asked, “Seriously?”

Mick nodded, her wavy hair bouncing with the movement, “I'm not the greatest at being sneaky, so the only person who might know is Butchy, and he’s not one to spill things like that.”

“That’s insane!” Vivien exclaimed, a laugh tumbling from her lips at the thought of surprising her friends with her sudden appearance in their world.

“I know, right!” Mick giggled. “But that means we have endless possibilities for surprising people. It all depends on where they are at the time.”

“When we land, it will be about one in the morning, Pacific Time,” Mack explained. “On a commercial flight, we usually stop a few times along the way to swap planes or pick up new passengers, but since this is private, we’re going to stop in New Jersey for a few minutes due to busy airways, and then get back in the air.”

“That will give us plenty of time to think about it,” Mick said cheerfully.

“And give both of you the chance to sleep,” Brady reminded his daughter, peering at her in the rearview mirror before he pulled onto the street that led them to the airport. “We don’t need both of you to be zombies when we touch down.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mick brushed off with a wave of her hand, her excitement over the whole situation outweighing the concept of sleep. “Anyway, I’ve got ideas for both options, and we can talk about them on the plane, if you want.”

Sending the older girl a smile and a nod, Vivien watched Mick smile and relax in her seat; pulling out her phone as Vivien took in a slow breath and glanced out the window. As they passed the Mall of New Hampshire, Vivien snapped a quick picture of the building and sent it to the group chart that had begun to quiet without her presence there to encourage the chaos, sending a cheeky message teasing the two girls who worked within the large, stucco and concrete building. Jade was the first to respond, her video message of her waving to the camera, arriving on Vivien’s phone as they pulled up to a gated parking lot. As Brady began speaking to the guard, listing the passengers and which flight they were on, Vivien sent a private message to Riven, telling him how nervous she was about being on a private plane.

‘You have nothing to worry about, Pip,’ was his reply. ‘The Birches know what they’re doing and wouldn’t put you in danger like that. Just breathe. You’ve got this.’

Sucking in a deep breath through gritted teeth, Vivien sent back a reply of gratitude and tried to relax as the car lurched forward and moved past the gate. Mack popped open the console between herself and Brady, pulling out a trio of passports before turning toward Vivien and asking, “Do you have your passport ready?”

Reaching under her rain coat and into the pocket of her hoodie, Vivien pulled the navy blue booklet out and handed it up to Mack, who added it to the stack in her hands. As they rolled down the tarmac, Vivien watched through the windows, trying to guess which aircraft they would be in. Narrowing it down the further they got, Vivien let out a noise of surprise as Brady turned to the side, lurching her toward the door as he pulled to a stop in a parking space. Looking around in confusion, Vivien followed the others out of the car, following Mack to the back of the vehicle, where they pulled their luggage from the trunk.

Mick grabbed Vivien’s free hand, pulling her toward a jet that had the door open and a set of stairs waiting. Pushing the handles of their suitcases down and picking them up by the straps on top, the girls boarded the plane, pushing their suitcases to the side to be scanned before finding seats to collapse into. Nudging Vivien into a window seat, Mick took the seat across from her and relaxed, waiting for her parents to board before instructing the younger girl to buckle up.

After the pilot came to greet them, telling them all the basics he needed to go over before the flight, he returned to the cockpit and announced that they would be leaving as soon as he had permission from the traffic control tower. With much reassurance from the others, Vivien began to relax, snapping pictures of the plane and the setting sun to send to her friends and family. After another announcement came over the speakers about taking off, they were in the air, and Vivien’s phone returned to her pocket as the seatbelt lights turned off. Peeling off her rain coat and shoving it into the seat next to her, Vivien huffed a sigh of relief as she realized the part she had worried about the most was now over.

Watching as the ground below grew smaller and harder to see, Vivien turned her attention to Mick, who had folded her arms on top of the table between them, leaning closer with a smile that told Vivien she didn’t want to know what the girl was going to get her into. “Do I want to know?” she asked the older brunette.

Vivien could hear the girl’s feet thumping against the base of her chair as she swung her legs back and forth, but Mick’s smile refused to dissipate as she explained, “I’ve been cooking up ideas for you.”

Nodding to herself, Vivien rolled her eyes, “Yup, didn’t want to know.”

Ignoring the girl’s statement, Mick said, “I was thinking-”

“That’s dangerous,” Brady chuckled from his seat on the opposite side of the plane.

“Dad,” Mick sighed dramatically. When the older man snickered and struck up a conversation with his wife, Mick turned her attention back to Vivien with a roll of her caramel eyes. “I figured that, once we land, we can-”

“Go to sleep?” Vivien interrupted.

“Ha!” Mick laughed. “No.”

“Yes,” Mack said, her motherly tone giving Mick little to no wiggle room as she deflated slightly.

“Okay, yeah, that too,” Mick relented. “But we can pick out some cute outfits from my closet and make sure you feel beautiful before we go.” Pointedly turning toward her mom, Micxk asked, “Right, Momma?”

“So long as you two aren’t up all night, yes,” Mack replied before taking a sip of the water bottle she had taken from the cabin’s mini fridge. “Now, Vivien, did you have anything to eat, sweetheart? They have sandwiches and things in the fridge, if you’d like.”

“That’s alright,” Vivien brushed off graciously. “Dad brought home some Mickey D’s on his way home from work.”

“I’m surprised he made it through the warden with that,” Brady said in a scoff.

Vivien smirked as the other two women gave their own forms of agreement, simply glad she wasn’t the only one who found her mother’s strict food control to be something of a nightmare. “Yeah, well, he didn’t exactly give her a choice. He came in, gave her a salad to shut her up, and let us get our meals without letting her anger break him down.”

“Good for him,” Mick grinned.

“Glad to know he’s finally growing bigger balls than hers,” Mack added. “I think we’ve all been placing bets to see how long that would take.”

With a hum of agreement, Vivien allowed the conversation to flow between topics, absentmindedly bringing up the subject of the battle bot project she wanted to work on when they got the chance, something that made Mick practically vibrate with excitement. Brady brought up the idea of using his tools if need be, which inspired Mick to go off on a spiel about possibly going to either Butchy’s or Miles’ place of work to utilize their welding kits and use some of the metal scraps they had tossed aside. By the time Mack had managed to pull them away from the topic at hand, they were starting to make their descent at an airport in Newark, New Jersey.

Before the plane took off again, Vivien sent a few relatively dark images and some quick messages to the people who knew she was leaving before stepping into the bathroom of the jet to call her aunts before they went to bed. They discussed the trip and spoke for a while about all of the activities Vivien was looking forward to before they wished each other a good night. Vivien promised to let them know when they landed before ending the call and scurrying back to her seat as the captain announced their approaching departure. Once they were back in the air and allowed to roam about, Mick showed Vivien how to recline her seat and find a comfortable position to sleep in before offering the girl a blanket and promptly passing out in her chair.

One by one, Vivien watched as the Birch family succumbed to the land of dreams, but despite her growing exhaustion and yawns tumbling from her mouth every other minute, she couldn’t find it in herself to actually sleep. She could have easily chalked up her inability to sleep to her nerves, but that wasn’t quite right. Somewhere deep inside her, she knew that there was nothing to worry about. Royce and Bentley would love to drag her around, Carrie had promised to take her to the lot they were filming on if she ever found herself in their world, and even Butchy and Miles had discussed dragging her to their respective jobs to show her knowledge of old vehicles off to their respective coworkers. There was nothing for her to be worked up over.

Forcing herself to take in a deep breath and push her unfounded fears aside, Vivien allowed another yawn to overtake her as she stretched. Reclining her seat and tugging her blanket around her shoulders, Vivien slouched into a more comfortable position, tucked her cell phone into her pocket, set her glasses on the table between herself and Mick’s slumbering form, and waited until the soft humming of the plane’s machinery lulled her to sleep. To her dismay, what felt like only a few minutes passed before Vivien found herself being gently shaken awake, grumbling at the interruption as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

A chuckle came from a blurry form as Vivien searched blearily for her glasses, listening to the person apologize in a soft voice before handing her the glasses she was searching for. Finally peering up at the person, Vivien found Brady smiling back at her, offering her a hand as he told her, “We just landed, kiddo. Time to go home.”

Chuckling exhaustedly as she stretched herself out like a cat rising from a comfortable position in the summer sun, Vivien muttered, “Am I too old to ask for someone to carry me?”

Brady let out another soft laugh, “Never, but I haven’t carried anybody in years, and I’d rather not drop you down the stairs of a plane.”

Vivien snorted and pushed herself from her seat, “Yeah, let’s not do that, then.”

“Smart girl,” Mack advised, patting the teenager on the back as she passed her on her way back from the bathroom.

As Brady worked on waking Mick from her slumber, Vivien folded up the blanket she had used, made sure she had everything she brought with her, and followed Mack to the front of the plane, where they received their belongings. Yawning as she followed Mack down the stairs, Vivien welcomed the warm California air with a tired grin. “It’s nice out,” she muttered as Mack led her toward a pale blue Jeep that had been brought onto the tarmac for them.

Accepting her car keys from the driver who brought the car over, Mack chuckled, “My phone says it’s fifty-something right now.”

More than content with the idea of the summer-like weather, Vivien sighed happily as she hauled her suitcase into the trunk of the car alongside Mack’s, “Like I said, I think you guys will have to drag me kicking and screaming from this place.”

Bringing an arm around Vivien’s shoulders, Mack smiled, “Just wait until you see how close we are to the beach.”

Vivien’s eyes glittered as the woman brought her to the side of the car, encouraging her to climb inside as Mack slid into the driver’s seat. However, before she climbed inside the vehicle, Vivien pulled out her phone and took a picture of the plane they landed in, sending it to the group chat with her bandmates before sending a message to her family members, letting everyone know they had landed safely in Santa Ana and were on their way to the Birch family’s home. Once she was sure the messages had been sent, Vivien slid into the backseat behind Mack and pulled the seatbelt across her body. Once the others had found their way to the car, Mack started the engine and pulled away from the plane, heading through a series of gates before making her way to the street and pulling away from the John Wayne Airport.

Unable to fall back asleep as they pulled onto the San Diego Freeway, Vivien watched with wide eyes as she took in the glow of the city. Throughout the half-hour drive, Vivien took a myriad of pictures. Glowing palm trees, buildings in the distance that appeared to touch the sky, and, as the freeway pulled them through San Juan Capistrano toward the beach, pictures of a seemingly endless night sky over the water. Smiling as he watched the girl take another picture, Brady encouraged his wife to take the long way home without saying a word, and Mack took the next exit, pulling onto Pacific Coast Highway and following it until the first set of lights she could turn at. At the next intersection, she turned onto Park Lantern and followed the street toward the water until it merged with Coast Highway.

The couple suppressed their laughter as Vivien gasped, leaning over their daughter to take pictures of the water that was still covered by a blanket of stars in the nighttime sky. Once houses began to block her view, Vivien relaxed, but her excitement was still very much palpable as the car glided down the highway. Turning toward the backseat, Brady kept his voice hushed as they slowed to a stop at a red light, “If you want a good shot, our street sign is right up here.”

“Really?” Vivien whispered.

Brady hummed in confirmation, “It’s on the light post up here on your side.”

Sure enough, as Vivien leaned closer to her window and squinted up at the post, she found a green sign with the words “Camino Capistrano” in thick, white writing. Although her cell phone refused to see the sign in the dark, Vivien smiled and kept her eyes on it until they had turned onto the aforementioned street and could no longer see the sign. Smiling more to herself than anything, Vivien watched with bated breath as Mack drove further up the street, past a traffic light, and through a curve. When they finally pulled to a stop in front of a fancy black gate with a Mediterranean-style roof and a few doors on either side, Vivien felt her jaw hit the floor.

Contrary to popular opinion, Vivien’s family had money. For a while in her childhood, her family had lived in an apartment that barely gave them enough room to live, but they had enough money to put food on the table and buy new things here and there. After her grandparents offered them the opportunity to move into their old house and take over the winery while they moved closer to their beloved summer camp, Vivien felt as though she was the luckiest person on the planet. While they weren’t exactly Elon Musk-level rich, the winery her parents operated and her grandparent’s summer camp made them more than financially secure. Knowing she had the chance to take on their jobs in the future, Vivien thought she would become richer than she had ever previously thought possible. However, as she got her first look at the Birch’s house, she realized she didn’t know shit about rich people.

Being well off on the East Coast meant having a home you owned, a car or two, and potentially a pet if you felt like it. Most people back home enjoyed taking up residence in old, colonial-style homes that would set them back a good hundred thousand dollars at least and were originally built for families with eleven or twelve children. East Coast wealth was classy, clean, and, well, antique. West Coast wealth, on the other hand, was a new kind of expensive. Stepping out of the car once they rolled to a stop in the four-car garage, Vivien couldn’t help but feel poor in every sense of the word.

Although Vivien had seen bits and pieces of the house over FaceTime with Mick, the sheer size of the house was astonishing. Following closely behind her friend, Vivien’s eyes scanned from the large, orange roof to the various balconies, to the swimming pool that seemed to wrap around the side of the house, and the various water guns and toys strewn about in the yard that were evidence that her friends from another world had visited before the Birches had come to collect her. Entering the house, Vivien waited for the lights to turn on before looking around at the pristine entryway. A large glass chandelier hung above the entrance, glimmering rays of light throughout the hall and part of the living room.

Although Vivien felt more than awake and ready to explore the luxurious home, Mack and Brady urged her to follow Mick upstairs once she had taken her shoes off by the door. Relenting despite her excitement, Vivien followed Mick up the hardwood stairs, grinning at the various childhood photographs of Mick and her friends along the wall as they climbed. Coming to the landing, Vivien found herself taken aback once more by the view. Across from the top of the stairs was a panoramic view of the beach across the street, a comfortable lounge area settled facing the floor-to-ceiling windows with a television mounted on the right wall - the only one without windows.

Before she could take a moment to process the kitchenette on one side of the staircase or the gaming area on the other, Vivien found herself taken by the wrist around the banister to a short hallway with three doors. They passed a room with Mick’s initial painted on the door, but Mick didn’t so much as glance toward her bedroom before opening the door to another room at the end of the hall and stepping aside for Vivien to enter.

With a yawn, the short brunette explained, “This used to be one of our guest rooms, but the boys usually take it when they stay with us, so a lot of Bentley art supplies and Royce’s books stay here.”

Looking up at the coffered, waffle-esque design on the ceiling and the various signs of life in the room, Vivien let out a disbelieving laugh, “This is insane.”

Mick took a look around and sighed at how poorly she had cleaned the room before leaving the week before, “Yeah, I know it’s not the cleanest right now, but we can pick everything up in the morning if you-”

“No, no, no!” Vivien said with a quick shake of her head, turning back toward her friend with a smile as she stood her suitcase by the end of the queen-sized bed. “Mick, you don’t understand.”

Confused in part by the conversation and part by her lack of sleep, Mick’s head tipped slightly to the side as she asked, “What do you mean?”

“I thought my house was big and that we were well off,” Vivien began, twirling around as she examined the room before finding Mick’s gaze again, “but I think yours just bitch-slapped my whole family onto the poverty line!”

Mick let out a snort, shaking her head fondly, “Well, don’t start comparing dick sizes just yet, gremlin. Save that for a time when I can actually think straight.”

“I hardly ever think straight,” Vivien smirked, taking a seat on the edge of the bed she had been given.

With a roll of her eyes and a fond smile, Mick teased, “Believe me, I know. Now, try to get some sleep. You don’t want jet lag to knock you out on your ass later.”

Raising her hand to her forehead in a mock salute, Vivien said, “Sir, yes, sir.”

Chuckling, Mick wished the younger girl a good night before disappearing into the hall, leaving the girl’s door open so that she could see the dimly lit lights in the hallway. Taking in a deep breath in the silence of her new room, Vivien hefted her suitcase onto the bed beside her and unzipped it, pulling out her astronaut lamp and setting it aside before tugging a pair of celestial pajama shorts and a matching tank top from one side of her suitcase. Picking up the luggage, she carried it over to a chair and left it open in the seat, changed into her pajamas, plugged in her lamp, and slipped under the covers with her headphones in one hand and phone in the other.

Putting on her headphones and listening to one of her favorite ASMR channels while watching the stars dance across the ceiling, Vivien finally found herself able to fall asleep relatively quickly. Dreams of surfing cerulean waves with her friends filled her night, and by the time the sun had begun poking through the curtains on either side of her bed, Vivien felt well-rested and ready to start her day. After hastily getting dressed in something appropriate for the eighty-three-degree weather her phone forecasted, Vivien took her time examining the house as she made her way down to the kitchen. Mick’s bedroom had already been vacated, and if the voices floating up the stairs were anything to go by, she was with her parents.

Making her way through the house to the kitchen, Vivien smiled as she listened to her friend’s family converse. The energy in the Birch’s house was always somewhat calming to Vivien, an environment where she could relax and feel at home regardless of what they were up to that day, but the feeling of belonging never wavered, no matter how far apart they truly were. Watching Mick dance around with her mother to the music on the radio, Vivien smiled as she leaned against the island counter. Brady nudged her arm as the song changed, beaming at the new addition to their household before offering her his hand. 

Without much hesitation, Vivien placed her hand in Brady’s and allowed him to lead her in a bouncy dance that twirled them around the kitchen as Vivien giggled. Mack and her daughter stopped after a while to watch the pair, listening to Vivien half-sing, half-shriek her way through the lyrics as Brady spun her around the kitchen with ease. As the song came to an end, he twirled Vivien away, grinning as she laughed over the voice of the radio host.

Once her vision had stopped spinning, Vivien giggled, “Good morning, America!”

Brady chuckled, “Good way to get the blood pumping early in the morning, right, kiddo?”

Vivien nodded, but it was Mack who spoke, “We find it’s nice to do something fun before you start your day.”

“Speaking of starting your day,” Mick began as Vivien climbed onto one of the stools on the side of the island, “are you feeling up to leaving yet?”

“Makana,” Mack scolded lightly, “let the poor girl wake up first.”

Vivien smiled as Mick sighed dramatically, but she shook her head as she turned to the older woman. “It’s alright, Mrs B. I think I’m too excited to be tired.”

Sighing as he opened the fridge, Brady said, “Well, that’s good because I think we’re going to have to have breakfast at Butchy and Lela’s house this morning.”

Mack appeared confused for a moment before realization dawned on her face, “We forgot to pick up food last night.”

Mick shrugged, “It was two in the morning.”

With a shake of his head, Brady turned to his daughter and asked, “Do you mind us using your kitchen?”

Before Mick could reply, Vivien asked, “Wouldn’t it be easier to go to Big Momma’s for breakfast since we have to go there anyway?”

“It would be,” Mick replied with a nod, “but by the time we pry Lela off of you, it’ll be time for lunch.” Turning back to her parents as Vivien nodded in understanding, she said, “Butchy and I can make up something while everyone gets settled in.”

Mack nodded and turned her attention back to Vivien before asking, “Would you like to go now, then? Do you have anything you would like to bring with you?”

Vivien thought for a moment before nodding, “I brought some stuff with me that I wanted to show everyone. Can I run up and grab it?”

“You don’t have to ask, Vivien,” Brady insisted. Nodding toward the stairs, he said, “Just go; we’ll still be here when you come back.”

As Vivien slid out of her seat, Mick patted her arm excitedly and said, “Just put your clothes on the bed and take your whole suitcase. I’m, like, ninety-three percent sure you’ll leave with more clothes than you came with.”

Her excitement surging at the idea, Vivien nodded and hurried for the stairs, bounding up them two at a time and pushing aside her desire to explore the large home as she headed for her room. Moving her suitcase from the chair she left it on to the end of her bed, Vivien began pulling out a majority of her daily clothes, leaving her essentials, headphones, charger cords, astronaut lamp, the envelope with her name on it that her siblings and father had given her before she left home, and a few items of clothing Carrie and Lela had let her “borrow” and never got back. Once she was certain she had everything she wanted to bring with her for however long she would be away, Vivien zipped up her bag and took in a deep breath. Glancing out the window at San Clemente, Vivien smiled at the knowledge that, within mere minutes, she would be transported into a world she had only ever heard in stories and seen in a movie.

Grabbing her suitcase by the handle, Vivien left her bedroom and headed for the stairs, lifting her bag before her descent and taking the handle once she’d reached the landing. Practically skipping to the kitchen, Vivien beamed at the Birches as she cheered, “Ready for liftoff!”

Happy to show off his work to a new person, Brady clapped his hands and gestured toward the sliding glass doors that led to the backyard, “After you, kiddo.”

Vivien took the lead, opening one side of the door and sucking in a sharp breath as she was hit full-force with the heat of Southern California. Mick snickered, wrapping an arm around Vivien and guiding her toward the shed at the back of their property as she chuckled, “Welcome to California.”

‘Ugh,” Vivien groaned, “is it always like this?”

“Not always, no,” Mick claimed, “but believe me, summers are much worse in Florida.”

Hoping the older girl was simply joking, Vivien remained quiet until Mick ushered her into the shed, and she was made to carefully toe her way around scrapped projects and stray tools until she reached the yellow, tube-shaped behemoth pressed securely against the back wall. A large flower Vivien recalled seeing on a surfboard hanging on the wall in the Birch’s home was engraved into metal at the very top of the machine, wires and metal bars sticking out behind it in a haphazard yet efficient way. Pulling the handle on the right side of the machine, Vivien stepped back as the rounded glass panel at the front slid back into the left side of the machine.

With a gentle nudge from Mack, Vivien stepped into the machine, followed soon after by the family who had brought her there. As the glass door slid closed again, Mick took her friend's free hand and told her to hang on to her belongings before instructing her to watch out the window to see things change around them. Somewhat cautious of the machine as it whirred to life, Vivien watched as a vibrant glow from above seemed to illuminate the otherwise dark mechanic's shed. A soft hum filled the air as colors began to swirl outside the machine, a kaleidoscope of hues coming to life in a vibrant array that faintly reminded Vivien of a show she had seen as a child. The colors grew brighter and more vibrant, rivaling the LED lights Vivien knew Oliver had lining his ceiling before slowly dimming and allowing Vivien to see her first glimpse of another world.

Although she didn't want to appear let down by the view she was given, Vivien couldn't help her quirked brow and immediate response of, "It's an old pickup in a dark garage. Cool."

Nudging her friend with her elbow, Mick stepped around her to open the door and snorted, "It's Butchy's. Now, come on."

Taken by the hand. Vivien was dragged into the house and pulled toward the kitchen, where running water could be heard just over the sound of Chubby Checker's song The Twist that played over the radio. As she came to a stop, Vivien felt a smile split her face as she took in the striped wallpaper and yellow cabinets, the vibrant colors of the room making it feel even more inviting than she thought it would. Tilting so she could see around Mick, Vivien held in a laugh with a hand over her mouth as Butchy turned off the faucet, and Lela's voice could be heard as she danced to the music beside him. It wasn't until the music came to an end and the radio host began speaking about the next song that the raven-haired girl noticed the new figures in her house.

Lela jumped and pressed a hand to her chest, her instinctive reaction to cuss out her sister-in-law cut short as she spotted the taller brunette standing behind Mick. Letting out a screech so shrill Butchy flinched behind her, Lela rocketed forward, all but shoving Mick out of the way in order to wrap her arms around her younger friend. Rocking Vivien from one side to the other, Lela excitedly asked, "What are you doing here?!"

"It's spring break back home," Vivien explained as Lela moved back just enough to squish her cheeks in her hands. With her lips resembling that of a goldfish, Vivien continued, "I wanted to surprise everyone."

Prying his sister's hands away from the sixteen-year-old's face, Butchy smiled, "If this is anything to go by, I think Royce might end up having a heart attack when he sees you."

"Let's hope not," Vivien chuckled somewhat nervously. "I don't particularly feel like killing him."

"Sure," Butchy chortled sarcastically. "You know, I've seen some of those crime shows you love so much, piccola. You'd be arrested in an instant if you tried to kill anyone."

Smirking, Vivien said, "First of all, I watch those enough to know how to not get caught at this point. And, second, one of these days, I'm going to figure out what you're calling me, big guy."

"I'm sure you will," Butchy grinned, allowing the girl to step forward and bring her arms around him as he ruffled her hair. "It's good to see you again, Viv."

Staring accusatorily at the man as she took a step back, Vivien asked, "Is the swear jar still in place here?"

Confused as to what that had to do with him being glad to see her, Butchy slowly nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"In that case," Vivien huffed, "I'd say it's nice to see you too, but maybe I shouldn't just yet."

"Oh yeah?" Butchy questioned. "Just because of the swear jar?"

"Mhm," Vivien nodded. "You keep that thing in place and I'll be broke by the end of my first week here."

Butchy chuckled, but before he could formulate a response to Vivien's jab, Lela spoke up, "You're staying for more than a week?"

Turning to the shorter girl, Vivien shrugged, "I was hoping to, if that's alright."

Mick chuckled as she began pulling things from the refrigerator, "She is. I don't think her staying is the problem."

"What do you mean?" Lela wondered.

Butchy stepped up to the counter to help Mick make breakfast before answering, "After letting the boys know she's here, it'll be nearly impossible for them to let her return home."

Lela breathed a noise of understanding before taking Vivien's hands and saying, "We need you to look as normal as possible before you go see the boys. How do you feel about borrowing something of mine?"

Smiling, Vivien nodded, "You're the boss."

As Lela let out a noise of excitement and began pulling her away, Butchy called out, "See you in three hours."

Vivien barely got the chance to look around on her way up to Lela's room, pulled up the stairs faster than she thought humanly possible as Lela began babbling about all the things she wanted to do with the younger girl. Although the girl's excitement was evident, Vivien couldn't help but feel astonished at how fast Lela could talk when she was happy. As Lela pulled her into her bedroom, Vivien couldn't help but look around in wonder at how different it was from the movie. Despite everything looking fairly similar, there were touches of modernity that stood out against the mid-century style of the room - pictures from modern times that had made it back in the girl's luggage, an old iPod Vivien was sure Mick had given her, and some items strewn about that Vivien recalled seeing the older girl buy in her world.

Before Vivien could ask her about anything she saw, Lela pulled her over to the closet, where she revealed a room that had Vivien convinced she had somehow ended up transported to Mia Thermopolis's closet from the second Princess Diaries movie. Two plush chairs sat against the far wall, racks of clothes illuminated by little dome lights lined the walls, and shelves of shoes and accessories filled the empty space. Lela scanned the racks of clothing as Vivien looked around in wonder, picking up a pair of oversized sunglasses with a smile before setting them down and moving on to the shoes.

Moving with practice ease through her color-coordinated clothing, Lela pulled clothes down by their hangers and began stacking them on her chair. Once she felt satisfied by the selection she had laid out, Lela turned to Vivien and smiled as the girl looked at herself in the mirror with a pair of elbow-length gloves, cat-eye sunglasses, and a large sunhat that flopped in front of her face. Stepping up behind the girl, Lela said, "Time to play dress-up."

Vivien giggled, pulling the sunhat off of her head and lowering the sunglasses as she said, "I think I already am."

"And you look fabulous," Lela claimed with a smile before stepping aside and gesturing to the clothes on one of her chairs. "However, I put aside some clothes for you to try on."

"Ooh," Vivien sang as she turned around, setting her accessories aside in favor of the large pile. As Lela began setting things in their rightful places, Vivien picked through the clothing and quickly found herself lost in the myriad of colors, fabrics, and styles. "You want me try on all of this?"

Lela glanced at the dainty watch on her wrist that her uncle had gifted her for her birthday before answering, "Well, I think we'll only have time for a few before they bring us something to eat, but yeah."

Shifting a pair of shorts onto the arm of the chair, Vivien mused, "I'm surprised you didn't want me in a dress today."

"Normally," Lela began as she made up the distance between herself and the brunette, "I would have, but where most of my dresses would be far too short on you, I figured we could make up for that at the shops later. For now, I figured pedal pushers, tees, and some shorts would be more comfortable for you."

"You're definitely not wrong," Vivien smiled. Turning to the older girl, she asked, "Where should I try these on?"

"Right here," Lela beamed, unhooking a curtain from the wall and letting it fall between herself and Vivien. "If you find anything you feel suits you for the day, let me know and I'll come help you look for accessories. In the meantime, I'll be doing my morning skincare."

Excitement flowed through her like an ice-cold drink on a hot summer day, and Vivien thanked Lela before turning toward her pile of clothing and sorting through everything. Setting aside bottoms she could put together with various tops, Vivien began picking out options and trying them on, examining her reflection before trying on something new. After trying on different outfits for a while, Vivien finally settled on one - a pair of striped, white and lavender shorts with a matching purple tank top that covered far more skin than that of the tank tops back home. Lela was quick to offer assistance with the rest of the outfit, deeming Vivien's classic, black and white, doodle-covered Converse acceptable before selecting a handful of necklaces and bracelets for the brunette to choose between.

Once they had taken a break to eat breakfast, Lela began working her magic on Vivien's hair. After making sure her bangs were separated from the rest of her hair by a curler, Lela brushed out Vivien's hip-length locks before pulling them up into a ponytail and securing them with not only an elastic but also a ribbon. Lela curled the very ends of Vivien's ponytail so that it all ended in a uniform ring before spraying it down with enough hairspray to poke a hole in the ozone layer and pulling the curler out from under Vivien's bangs. 

Grinning in disbelief at her reflection in Lela's vanity, Vivien thanked Lela for putting in more effort than she ever did back home, "I could never do anything like this."

"You could," Lela argued as she placed the cover back on her canister of hairspray and set it on the corner of her vanity. "It just takes practice, that's all."

"And far more patience than I could ever manage," Vivien chuckled, rising slowly from the bench Lela had practically shoved her onto. "Seriously, though, Lela, thank you."

"Anytime," Lela beamed. Checking her watch once again, she clapped her hands and said, "Now, I believe it's time we show you off to everyone at Big Momma's."

"What about Royce?" Vivien asked hesitantly as Lela began to leave the room. "Shouldn't we go see him first?"

Turning back to Vivien as she opened her bedroom door, Lela smirked knowingly, "His shift starts early on weekends."

"His shift?" 

But Lela was already on her way out of the room, a wink being the only response Vivien could pry from the girl as she followed Lela out of the room and down to the living room where everyone else was waiting. With everyone else decked out in their finest sixties regalia, Vivien didn't feel half as out of place as she assumed she would be as she followed them outside, where a blue Volkswagen bus waited. As Mick climbed into the driver's seat, Vivien was allowed the seat beside her, and once everyone was inside, they took off down the road. Taking in the sights of the beach town as they rolled down the street, Vivien found it impossible to wipe the smile from her face.

The look of everything in the area was so different than what she was used to back home - mid-century houses with slanted roofs and fun doorways lined one side of the street while small businesses with typically fifties and sixties fonts in their windows lined the other. Turning toward Mick, she said, "I think I'm already in love."

With a laugh, Mick's gaze flitted toward the brunette before settling on the road again as she turned into a small parking lot where a few cars and motorcycles had parked, the expansive beach and a large building with a thatched roof within walking distance of the lot. Confused, Vivien followed the others as they climbed out of the car, but as everyone headed around the building, Vivien found herself dragged by the wrist toward the back entrance. Mick held the door for her younger friend and guided her through the kitchen before depositing her by the refrigerator and telling her to stay low until she came to get her. 

Resigning to her fate of being stuck between the fridge and the trash can, Vivien crouched low to the floor, observing the people in the kitchen as they moved around, seemingly without noticing her presence. The smell of freshly cooked fish and baked potatoes filled the air, contrasting the stench of the food scraps piling up in the trash next to Vivien as she inched as close to the fridge as possible. However, as a blonde waitress entered the kitchen through the swinging door Mick had left through, Vivien found herself caught. With a hesitant smile and an awkward wave, the blonde neared the fridge with a tray and gathered colorful bottles of soda from it before placing it on a stainless steel counter and glancing over her shoulder at Vivien.

"Are you supposed to be back here?" the girl asked, a thick, southern twang accenting her voice.

Vivien swallowed thickly, offering a shrug as she explained, "My friend pushed me back here."

"Why?" the blonde questioned as she began popping off the lids of the sodas.

"I'm trying to surprise my boyfriend," Vivien explained. "I'm from New Hampshire and he doesn't know I'm here."

The blonde glanced around the kitchen, seemingly looking for someone, before settling her hazel eyes back on the girl crouched on the floor. Lowering her voice, she said, "Be grateful Big Momma isn't back here. This place is supposed to be staff-only after the soda geyser incident that happened a few weeks ago."

"Soda geyser?" Vivien repeated, mildly curious as to whether or not that had anything to do with the Mentos experiment she had shown the boys over Facetime not long ago.

"It was a huge mess," the blonde said before waving it off. Kneeling down to the brunette's height, the girl held out a hand and asked, "What's your name?"

Latching hands with the girl, Vivien smiled and said, "I'm-"

"Vivien, it's time!" Mick whisper-yelled as she pushed open the swinging door. Finding the girl on the floor and the blonde in front of her, Mick stalled, the gears in her brain turning for a moment as she processed the scene before a smile appeared on her face. "Oh, hey, Juliet."

"Hey, Mick," Juliet greeted. Turning back to the girl before her, she asked, "I presume that makes you Vivien?"

Vivien nodded, "And you Juliet?" 

"Guilty as charged," Juliet smiled, her teeth a blinding white in comparison to her peachy lip gloss. Pulling the younger girl to her feet, Juliet asked, "So, what's the plan? How're we surprising this lucky mystery boy?"

"Well, I was thinking Viv could go out and pretend to be a waitress to surprise him," Mick claimed.

Glancing through the serving window, Juliet asked, "What table are they?"

"It's Miles' little brother, Royce," Mick explained. "He should be on his lunch break with his brothers now, right?"

Juliet's wide-eyed gasp shocked Vivien as the blonde whirled around, "Wait, for real? You're with Royce?" When Vivien slowly nodded in confirmation, Juliet let out a soft chuckle, "Everyone thought he was pulling our legs when he said he had a girlfriend. Especially 'cause he said she lived in a different state."

"Well, he was telling the truth," Vivien smiled nervously. 

"I guess so," Juliet beamed. Turning to Mick, she said, "Anyway, I just got all their drinks together. If you want to head out now, I'll take Vivien here with me and say she's a new trainee."

Mick thought for a moment, but it didn't take her long to decide, "Honestly, that's a better plan than mine. I'll go back to my seat, and I'll see you out there in a few!"

As Mick hurried back through the door, Juliet turned to Vivien and asked, "So, newbie, are you ready for your first day at work?"

"I guess so," Vivien said, sucking in a deep breath. 

With a smile, Juliet took a spare waist apron from the hangers on the wall and tied it around the younger girl before picking up her tray of sodas and asking, "Think you can carry this to their booth?"

"I can certainly try," Vivien offered, eyeing the collection of colored liquids.

Once Juliet was sure Vivien had a good hold on the tray, she said, "Just stay behind me and don't say a word until I introduce you. The less chance he has of seeing you, the better chances you have of surprising him."

Vivien nodded, and without another word, Juliet began to lead the way out, holding the door open behind her for Vivien before leading her through the busy restaurant. Vivien didn't get the chance to look around much as they walked, more focused on not spilling any drinks than exploring. However, as Juliet stopped at a booth along the far wall, Vivien looked around, hoping to see some familiar faces among the crowds.

Clearing her throat, Juliet spoke, "Hope y'all don't mind, but we've got a new girl with us this noontime and I figured I'd show her the ropes while Royce here takes his break."

"That's fine, Jules," Vivien heard Miles say. "What's her name?"

"I figured I'd let her introduce herself when she's ready," Juliet said, glancing over her shoulder at Vivien before stepping aside.

Finally able to see the group in the booth, Vivien took in the look of surprise on Miles' face first. Miles quickly got Carrie's attention by squeezing her hand, getting her to look up from the menu in her hands. Cerulean eyes glittered like fireworks as Carrie saw the girl standing at the end of the table, and she hurriedly tapped Bentley's shin under the table with the toe of her shoe, making him lift his head from the crayon drawings he had begun on the back of one of the disposable, paper placemats. Somewhat annoyed at the interruption, Bentley lifted his gaze with a question on his lips, but as Carrie pointed to the end of the table, his question died, and his mouth dropped open, his eyes widening to the size of dinner plates.

Before anyone could signal Royce to lift his head from his arms as he yawned tiredly toward the table, Vivien smiled at his tangled curls and said, "Hey, handsome."

Without bothering to look up, Royce decided that, since nobody else cared to speak, he would, and mumbled, "Believe it or not, Miles has a girlfriend."

Vivien fought down a laugh and said, "Believe it or not, I wasn't talking to him."

The first to pull himself out of his shocked stupor, Miles grinned and said, "Royce has one too."

"I don't see her anywhere," Vivien said, placing the tray of drinks on the end of the table. "Maybe I need a mirror."

Royce rolled his eyes, lifting his head from his arms enough to take his soda from the tray as he said, "Not interested."

"Royce," Bentley began warningly but was quickly stopped by Miles as the oldest of the brothers placed a finger to his lips and gestured for the boy to stay silent.

"Damn," Vivien sighed as Royce's forehead rested against his arms once more. "And here I thought we would have lasted at least half a year before you decided to break up with me, Rolls."

Startled by the choice of nickname, Royce's eyes peeled open, and through the corner of his eyes, he found himself looking at a pair of Converse with faded doodles on the white of the toe, but it wasn't until he saw the tiny ship charm dangling from her laces that he began putting pieces together. As he slowly lifted his head, Royce found himself frozen with shock. Sure enough, standing before him was his girlfriend, but she looked as though she had stepped out of a magazine. Her typical jeans and T-shirt were replaced with clothing he was used to seeing on some of his friends at school, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail he knew she would normally complain about at the end of the day, but she didn't seem upset by it in the slightest. Her round glasses caught the light above their table perfectly, glinting magically as the light above another nearby table casted a golden halo around her from behind. For a while, Royce was convinced he was seeing things - Vivien couldn't be in his world; it was impossible! She would have told him she was coming! - but then she smiled down at him and said something he couldn't hear over the thoughts running rampant in his head.

Swallowing as he blinked up at her, Royce softly asked, "Vivien?"

The girl before him laughed, and while that beautiful symphony was all he needed to hear, her nod dispelled any further doubts he could have had. Rocketing up from his seat, Royce lunged forward, bringing his arms around her as far as they would reach, nearly lifting her from the floor as she giggled by his ear. They stood like that for what felt like an eternity before Royce backed away enough to take her face in his hands, examining her as though it was the first time.

"Hey," she breathed, as eloquent as ever.

"You-" Royce cut himself off with a laugh, "You're real. You're real and you're here. How are you here?"

Vivien shrugged, "Magic."

Scoffing a laugh, Royce shook his head and brought her back into an embrace that she quickly returned. Looking over her boyfriend's shoulder at the group, who had now pulled themselves out of the booth to greet her, Vivien smiled and gestured for Bentley to join them. Needing no further encouragement, Bentley was quick to attach himself to the pair, ducking under Royce's arm as it came around his shoulders and smiling as Vivien's snuck around his back. The trio refused to separate until Miles asked for his hug, making Vivien pry herself away from her boys for long enough to give Miles and Carrie a greeting as well. Then, just like magnets, the trio fell back together again. This time, however, they separated after a minute, and with Vivien's hands locked firmly in theirs, the boys began showing her around to anyone and everyone who would give them the time of day.

Vivien couldn't help but smile as she was dragged through the restaurant, her face burning like a neon firetruck. As much as she hated being the center of attention, she tried to swallow back her growing anxiety at being surrounded by strangers in favor of allowing the boys to introduce her to the people they cared about. She was sure her growing nerves and embarrassment at being shown off like a prize horse would wear off over time once the boys began to settle, and she wasn't about to complain to either of them until they were calmed down a bit. After all, they had waited long enough for this. Besides, what was the harm of a little embarrassment? If it meant the boys' gleaming smiles never left their faces, she would deal with it a thousand times over. Catching Royce watching her fondly as Bentley introduced her to some of their and their brother's friends, Vivien smiled. 

Maybe - just maybe - she could get used to this.

[moresassythanclassy]

Opinion: I really liked the Danbury/Ledger storyline. Here’s why.

Apologies in advance for this long take.

First, let me say that I don’t think I’ve ever felt more morally conflicted than I have while watching a pairing engaging in an affair. Actually, the first time I watched, I was cringing as they started growing closer and would point at the tv and say “Stop. It.” every time they came on.

But then I went back and watched their scenes again, and things changed a bit for me. And while I’m certainly not trying to justify an extramarital affair, I do feel like I now understand and even sympathize with them more than I thought I would have.

I suppose this whole situation just reminds me of how different their world truly was back then, where women were treated as property and the only things that really mattered were achieving/maintaining wealth and status. Lady Danbury was, by definition, a slave to her husband. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what that must’ve been like. She was probably married by 18—a young, beautiful woman with what could’ve been a full life ahead of her, forced to marry a man many decades her senior, who used and abused her whenever he pleased, with no true regard for her thoughts or feelings.

And Lord Ledger, while having so many more freedoms as a man, still clearly felt trapped in a marriage he was likely coerced into as well. (I will add that I truly resented the fact that they made Lady Ledger an unlikable person seemingly to justify the affair in a way—it doesn’t. But, since this was the material we were given, I’m still going to entertain it.) Ledger and his wife were obviously indifferent toward one another—they may have even loathed each other. In fact, as we learn more about him, his sense of humor and love for his daughter were the only things it seemed truly kept him going in life. But then he meets Agatha, and things begin to change.

*Side note: I feel like it’s worth mentioning that I believe they chose to change Danbury’s storyline from s2 Bridgerton significantly for QC, because Danbury’s conversation with Kate made it seem to me as though she’d actually somewhat cared for or even loved her husband. This is why her words don’t exactly seem consistent from s2 Bridgerton to QC if it is true that Danbury was referring to Ledger this whole time.

You may disagree with me completely, but I do feel like Danbury and Ledger truly did love each other, even if their relationship was brief. Now, the kind of love they felt may have been different than how we know it to be today, but for what little they truly knew about the concept of romantic love, they certainly experienced it in some way. Not only did Danbury keep the birthday hat he made for her, she even had her staff take her out to the fields in the middle of winter just to stand there and stare at their old meetup spot—and this had been 50 years on.

I personally buy that Danbury fell in love with Ledger for multiple reasons, the main one being that he was the first man to genuinely treat her with dignity and respect—the first man to truly take the time to listen to her, to take her thoughts and feelings into account and appreciate her for who she was. Ledger, at the same time, probably never experienced a friendship like this with a woman—one where he could actually say what he felt without fear of being judged. And for these reasons, I am glad that they found this friendship in each other.

But then, add in the fact that they were actually attracted to one another, and things were bound to change. When Agatha laments how all she has to live for now is mourning, embroidery, and tea with other widows, Ledger seems struck with the urge to ensure she knows that he is there for her, and that he cares—and cares deeply. At this point in her life, Agatha doesn’t seem to give much regard to the sanctity of marriage (and who can blame her?) so it’s no surprise that she’s the one who feels little to no guilt whenever they almost kiss and is disappointed when it doesn’t happen. Ledger, meanwhile, knows that what he almost did is wrong, and abruptly leaves.

The thing is, they clearly should’ve left it at that. Once they knew it would be so easy to cross this line together, they knew things could never be the same. Danbury, again, really didn’t seem to care—all she knew was that, for the first time in her life, she was actually, truly happy. But even then, she didn’t attempt to force herself on him. Ledger should’ve been the one to stop it, but instead, he deliberately made the choice to make the birthday hat and deliver it to her house when (miraculously) no one else was home, and then, as we know, things progressed from there.

I really am glad for them both that they finally got to experience what sexual joy truly felt like, but it unfortunately came at a cost. Ledger realized the error of his ways, and even though he still loved Agatha, he chose to do what was best for his daughter and what he thought was best for Agatha. And poor Agatha, despite being a bit heartbroken, understood and accepted it.

The truly heartbreaking thing about all of this to me is that their love for each other was pure, but their circumstances and the resulting decisions they made were not. Maybe in another time, in another life, they could’ve been happy together. Sadly, though, this relationship was always going to fail before it could really even get off the ground.

Yet still, in all the time that passed, Danbury never once seemed to regret it. Do I wish she'd fallen in love with someone actually available? Absolutely, but that just wasn't the way it happened, at least not with her first love. I do hope that, after all this time, Ledger wasn’t the only one—she deserved to know what it felt like to be loved by someone who could love her that way. If it never happened for her, though, and Ledger really was the only one, maybe that’s actually alright? If that one experience was enough to sustain her and help her to continue to find peace and happiness all these years later, then maybe it was enough.

For all of these reasons, this is why I found their storyline to be intriguing and fairly thought-provoking. Again, you may fervently disagree, and you could be absolutely right, but I just wanted to share my two cents on how I felt about it. Props to you if you made it all the way through this.

TLDR: Their affair was wrong. Their love was not.

[mischas]

Just rewatched the 3×15 "I want you" scene and I hate the writers so much for interrupting it. Y'all couldn’t have just let them fuck one last time? Lmaooo but seriously. This show has enough ass backwards storylines that punish Marissa so they could've let that scene happen and then have Marissa feel guilty (even more than she canonically did) because she was wildin while Johnny was dying 💀 (okay im not serious, that would've been terrible but I just wanted that scene to finish lol). No seriously, why would you go thru all the trouble of giving RM the tragic and poetic last hurrah of having Marissa "choose" Ryan after the ultimatum thingy that would directly lead to Johnny's death which in turn would lead to their breakup if you weren’t gonna give us one last poetic raunchy consummation? (Okay that was cringe but you get my point) Did they hate RM or what? What was the point of doing mid-S3 the way they did?

Rant over

Yeah dude I hear you. There was ample time in s3 to course correct and they just kept giving us everything except what we actually wanted. The scene in 314 is so good chemistry-wise, it's kind of insane just in terms of the story and the actors. Just get RM in a room uninterrupted and they'll come out of it with 80% of their issues resolved. This show is literally a never-ending 'what if' because everything gets exponentially worse.

Having Kaitlin present the Baskin Robbins metaphor in conjunction with the letter had to mean something at some point but it got dropped in favor of rebound relationships instead. The show was suffering in the ratings at the time and thought adding an element of sex would help them out. And you know how much this show loved bringing in guest stars. And it's massively insinuated that Mischa and Ben weren't getting along at this time (like I said, making the 314 chemistry... something). So production went all in on those rebounds. By this time the scripts were only written three weeks before an episode even aired, so imagine the quick turnaround this late in the game. The show was a goddamn mess by s3 and they thought removing Mischa from the equation would solve everyone's problems. And they quickly realized it didn't solve shit because she wasn't the problem after all lmao

[bi-lullaby]

So I really loved the PJO show. I wish we get a second season, and a fourth and so on all the way through heroes of olympus because it’s just so good. If you feel like reading my (NOT spoiler free) rambles:

- Percy’s loyalty and dedication to his mom is just so integral to his character and they RESPECT THAT.

- I really like what I’ve seen mentioned about how both casting wise and storyline changes wise there have been some adaptations that were less “lol lets change it” and more to connect better with today’s audience and cultural paradigm. Like Annabeth being blonde because of the stereotype of “the dumb blonde” that was so prevalent in the era the books were released versus her being Black showcasing the extreme undermining Black women go through instead, or Luke being less 00s/10s boyband boy looking and more tiktok softboy looking now, but also Sally being less 100% perfect and more active in the story and upbringing of Percy as both a hero and a demigod and Luke being less cool and detached and more… Sweet? Emotional?

- I did feel pretty meh about a few changes: Zeus immediately accepting that Kronos is scheming and is a threat (Ik they couldn’t know if they’ll get that far but it cuts the stakes of the third book by a lot if there’s no pressing time limit to get Artemis back to Olympus to convince the Gods into action if they’ve been Doing Stuff for two years now, and even the second book loses a little in regards to the behind-the-scenes political climate that leas to it being what it was). Luke going to every length not to kill Percy is such a 180° from the books it was a little jarring and I feel it cuts out how much of a Menace he was and how bitter/jealous he was of Percy. Like we could have seen their bonding and even Luke trying to recruit him but I’d still have liked to see the scorpion scene so the betrayal and anger and wariness Percy feels is that much deeper and bitter and personal like in the books.

- I’m of two minds about the entire Gabe arch. Like on one hand I do understand toning him down (including his demise) for the public’s intended audience, I even think it kinda goes along the adapting to new times by showing that the useless, insensitive, disrespectful aspect of a bad husband is harmful just as the “darker”, more explicitly abusive/exploitative and mean drunk book version, but on the other I feel like he had such an impact on Percy in the books (he’s literally the Oracle’s “mirage” for his prophecy, he thinks of his smell in tartarus), and I really had loved the line “you’ll fail to save what matters most in the end” coming true because Sally saves herself - although the post I’ve seen about his fate showcasing how his lack of respect was his doom did make me appreciate it a little more.

- The only castings (or maybe it was the directing and styling of them more so) that I can’t really get behind are Hades and Hephaestus. Hades felt like they were going for the Disney’s Hercules comedic relief one in a slightly toned down costume. None of the gravitas and intimidation, he didn’t feel like a god at any point. And Hephaestus was just… So different. He’s supposed to be a deeply secluded, antisocial, gruffy mechanic who’s self sequestered by his inventions and forges. The show version looked like an eccentric professor more than anything imo. Which I feel could be one modern retelling of Hephaestus in another series, but isn’t the one we had and, imo, doesn’t go as well with the rest of the vibe. Which is a shame bc I do feel like Timothy could have been used in a way that would work fantastically for those vibes.

- Lin Manuel Miranda’s, acting actually shocked me. I never really had a Hamilton phase but I am on tumblr so I was expecting something cringe and honestly, I thought it was good (and to bring it back to Hades: Hermes in sweats and a hoodie actually gave me the feeling of “this is merely a cover to a deep well of power” than Hades in his suit and dark colors ever did)

- Meanwhile, perfect Ares casting. Yes this man is beefing with (and losing to) 12yos but he’s also an ancient force that revels in bloodshed and carnage.

- Annabeth from the show encapsulates the character so well while also bringing her own notes to it. Like as time went on back in my peak pjo days I felt she got “Hermionified” by the fandom too much? And I lost sight of how fond I was of her but the show (and having reread the books) really rekindled that and made me remember why she is a force to be reckoned with and also someone that must be protected at all costs. I cannot express enough how much my fondness was reignited.

- Like I feel this could be a whole post but basically I feel the books showcase the “ideal” characteristics the gods and their kids could have versus how they wind up twisted into something else (Percy’s sea-like indomitable spirit vs several of his brethren’s ruthlessness and disregard for what’s good) and Annabeth feels like, beyond amassing knowledge for it’s sake… She wants to actually Learn, and in the show maybe even to a deeper degree than in the books and it is endearing and very enthralling.

- On that note, Leah, Walker… This is supposed to be a SLOWburn goddamit. Like in the books you can see where it’s headed but in the show they have such silly crushes I can barelyy stand it. My children.

- Speaking of Walker that kid IS Percy like you cannot convince me otherwise. Disney farmed him for this role.

- I actually really loved Poseidon having a british accent? Idk, something about england and nautical exploration and it feeling older and more… Powerful? Like the ocean

- And Zeus had all the “I’m the god amongst kings and king amongst gods” that I’d have expected from him. He was crackling with power and that was beautiful to see. What a tragic loss.

- Grover is my precious child (although I do wish we had gotten the silly, goat like details of him like eating cans and making the bleating noises). And since the last book I finished rereading was the Battle of the Labyrinth (where I cried like a baby at Pan’s death) watching this sweetheart getting all excited with his literal flower searches license? Made me wanna weep.

- Overall most of my criticisms that came to mind besides the alterations I cited came from being hushed because of too few eps and those being too short. Really really hope the next season (fingers crossed) we’ll get like, 15+ eps (and/or at least longer eps) so we can really sink into the meat and potatoes of it all.

[speedyartist30]

VR

Sitting in his room in pure boredom, Makalo scrolls aimlessly through his to keep himself entertained,but even that got stale pretty fast. TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, tumblr and other media just didn’t keep his mind occupied. Groaning loudly he let his phone slip out his hand. He was one hundred percent bored. He didn’t feel like going out to skateboard because of people still buzzing about the whole Wasp ordeal.

Blue eyes drifted to his iPad and spray paint but all that brought him was a scowl on his face. Makalo had caught a mean case of art block for a week now and still couldn’t shake it.

“Ugh!!! There’s nothing to do!”

Rolling off the bed and landing on the floor, Makalo spots his VR underneath his bed. “I forgot all about this.” He mumbled.

Grabbing the headset and the controllers he got to his feet and heads to the living room. Connecting the VR to the tv Makalo sees a game that catches his attention.

“Five nights at Freddy’s…”

Makalo never played this game alone before. Usually him and Ethan usually play together and they just ended up screaming and laughing at each other. They both weren’t that good since they showed more interest in other games like first shooters or something that had a storyline to follow.

*I can beat this game alone. How hard could it be.*

Makalo puts on the headset.

Meanwhile at the supermarket Ethan and Jay do a bit of shopping. In the tech aisle, Ethan was searching for a certain memory card to add to his drones as well along with a new camera lens to replace his damaged one on his drone. While his hand hivred kver the multiple options Ethan comments, “If I would have known those wasps would have returned so soon I would’ve added more protection on my drone. Or atleast modified to move faster to dodge them.”

Not hearing a response Ethan looks over to see Jay watching the display TVs. One of the screens was a broadcaster showing videos of Jay running through the city with a swarm of was chasing him. The videos were taken by bystanders that witnessed the chase. The video cuts to pictures of the dead wasps and emergency responders helo with clean up. When the image of a wasp with a crater through its body made Jay cringe and subconsciously rub his arm. The wasp attack was only yesterday and Jay still felt the burden of it. The media however was eating it up.

Grabbing the lens he needed, Ethan stepped beside him to read the headlines. Ever since Jay gave his self the title,”Kiran” media was really pushing the whole “mystery hero” persona. 

Ethan: “They going to be talking about this for a while. But I’m sure it’ll pass.”

Jay: “I know. It’s just …What happened yesterday wasn’t….normal. I doubt it’ll blow over that quickly.”

Shaking his head, Jay backed away from the TV and glanced to the small crowd of people who gathered to watch. Jay couldn’t help but think if only they knew that the man in the lightning was standing right next to them. Ethan gives Jay a sympathetic smile, he could tell Jay wasn’t comfortable with all the media attention. 

After picking up a few more things in their list the two move towards the first aid/medical aisle to get Jay a sling for his arm.

Ethan: “How’s your arm? Is not bothering you too bad, is it?”

Jay: “It’s fine just a little sore”

Ethan knew Jay wasn’t being fully honest, but he didn’t want to pressure him either. Jay's wrist and elbow were swollen and the dark red bruises thst formed through the night didn’t help make it look better. Not to mention his knuckles were bruised too. Adjusting his glasses Ethan scanned the shelves.

Ethan:”Your pain tolerance is ridiculous. Anyone else would of got checked out by now…or passed out from shock.”

Jay shrugged but stiffened at a sharp sting surging up his arm. Rubbing his shoulder he looked at the variety of medical supplies, he grabbed a bottle of pain killers.

Jay:”Do you know what kind to get? I’m a bit lost here.”

Ethan:”Yeah I know. My moms a doctor so I know a lot about medical because of her.”

Looking to jay with a sheepish smile he adds.

Ethan:”And I dislocated my shoulder once by falling off the monkey bars when I was ten, so I know what should help support your arm till it’s healed up.”

Jay”Ouch, I guess that’s one way to know.”

Ethan:”Well you live and you learn. In my case I didn’t learn till I tasted dirt.”

That got a faint laugh from jay even though it was more like a little huff from his nose. 

Ethan end up picking a dark blue sling for him and they wrapped up it up by paying paid for their things and headed home. On the way they stopped at a gas station where Ethan got some filled up the while Jay went inside and got a blue raspberry slushy. Surprisingly he came back with a bag full of candy and chips Ethan and Makalo liked. Ethan didn’t think Jay payed attention to the food they liked, but he wasn’t complaining about free snacks.

When the arrived at home the two walked inside to see a frustrated Makalo. With his back turned and attention focused on the game he yelled

Makalo: “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE CHICKEN WAS AT THE DOOR!?”

Noticing the, Ethan placed his bag on the couch and walked up behind Makalo. Grinning he grabbed his fiends shoulders

Ethan: “who are you talking to?”

Screaming, Makalo yanks the headset off and swats Ethan’s hands off while the brunette laughed his head off. Jay however was too distracted by the headset. Sipping his slushy Jay asked quietly,“What’s is that?”

Makalo:”This? It’s VR headset. It makes you feel like you're inside the game.”

Curious Ethan picked it up and looked through to see what game was playing.

Ethan: “What are y- uh…Now why would you play this game out of all games?”

Makalo: “Because I want to beat it! I refuse to lose to a freaking CHICKEN!”

Taking the headset back on Makalo tries again and slide it back over his head. On the tv Ethan and Jay watched from Makalos point of view. Tilting his head Jay whispered to Ethan…

Jay:”Does he have a thing against birds or something?”

Ethan: “What? No, he just doesn’t like losing this game and he gets frustrated playing since chica always gets him at the end.”

They both sit on the couch as they watch Makalo start panicking and flailing his arms around as he quickly closed the doors when a purple bunny appeared.

Jay: “Why not help him play then?”

Ethan: “Because…. I’m not a fan of scary games and to be fair I wouldn’t be much help.”

Watching Makalo play/struggle to stay alive Jay hears footsteps from the tv,but no one is reacting to them.

Jay: “Doesn’t hear that?”

Ethan: “Hear what?”

Jay: “It sounds like heavy footsteps from the left.”

Ethan: “I don’t hear anythi-“

Makalo: “AAAAAAHHHHH!!”

Coming from the left side of the screen was a purple rabbit screaming on the tv. Yanking the headset off and throwing it on the couch Makalo stomps off to the kitchen mumbling,”Stupid Bonnie..” Ethan on the other hand looked perplexed at Jay.

Ethan: “How did you hear that?”

Jay: “It was pretty loud.”

Ethan: “But how did you hear that over Makalos screaming?”

Not sure what to say Jay gave a one-armed shrug, he always had good senses and didn’t think much of it. Coming back from the kitchen after a quick snack break Makalo grabs the headset again. Getting an idea Ethan stops him.

Ethan:“Mak hold on I think Jay can help you beat the game.”

Makalo:”For real? How?”

Ethan:”He can hear the sounds we can’t so he can tell you where they are coming from.”

Makalo:”That could work, but wouldn’t be easier for him to wear the headset and play the game?”

Jay: “Makalo….I have one arm right now”

Makalo: “Right….My fault bro.”

Ethan: “Before we do this Makalo you can’t panic because if you do then you won’t be able to hear us.”

Blinking Makalo sheepishly scratched his head 

Makalo:”You know I can’t do thst bro.”

Standing up Ethan out his hands on Makalos shoulders with a serious expression. He would be his best friends hype man, mainly because he wanted a good laugh.

Ethan: “You have too! Do you want Chica to walk all over you

Makalo: “No..”

Ethan:”Are you going lock in!”

Makalo:”Hell yeah!”

And with that Makalo grabs the VR and places it back on his head with burning determination to get this victory! Ethan fights back his laughter and sit back on the couch. Jay looked at them curiously wondering if the hype would actually help.Starting the game Makalo listened to Jay to close the doors while Ethan told him to check which cameras. With everyone in their roles they worked as one unit.

Jay: “On your right.”

Makalo:Got it. I’m feeling pretty good right now”

Ethan: “Ok, so check the hallway cams on your left”

Makalo: “It’s empty”

Ethan:”ok check pirate cove.”

Makalo:”Uh….it’s open but I can still see foxy”

Jay:”The right side is clear”

Ethan:”check the fox”

Makalo: “…….”

Jay: “Makalo?”

Makalo: “FOXY IS GONE!!”

Ethan: “Ok just rela- STOP SCREAMING!! Check the camera!”

Makalo:”HE’S RUNNING TOWARDS ME!!”

Jay:”Just close the door…”

MAKALO:”THE FREAKIN BUTTON IS JAMMED!?””

And with that Foxy gets Makalo and the game ends. Defeated Makalo took of the headset and face planted on the couch.Trying not to laugh Jay puts a hand over his mouth at the over-dramatic sequence while Ethan is full-out laughing at Makalos failed attempt

Ethan: “I said don’t panic!”

Makalo:”Well you try not to when the damn door gets stuck!”

Glaring up at his friends Makalo couldn’t help but laugh along side them. The whole ordeal was so ridiculous that laughing jusy felt right.

Wiping a tear from his eyes Makalo sat up with a sigh..

Makalo:”Ok all that screaming made me hungry.”

Ethan: “Same, any ideas?”

Jay:”There’s a Chinese place not far from here. I want dumplings.”

Makalo:”That sounds good. I’m down. Ethan?”

Ethan: “Sounds good. I’ll order the food.”

Putting in the call the trio kicked back and enjoyed the moment as the city of Neon was finally in a state of peace. No crime. No monsters. Just three bros and some warm takeout on the way.

[sanaxo-o]

Since I have an exam tomorrow and I haven’t even started studying let’s see the dramas I watched in 2024! And rate them :)

(Posting this after the exam was done because I uh forgot but yes. Learn how to procrastinate from me)

Gossip girl (OG)

First four or so seasons GREAT but I slowly got bored of it yet I finished it (my whole theme is Blair Waldorf)

Do not get the Jenny hate train when the other characters did some much more fucked up shit

Gilmore girls

Was upset when Tristan left the show 😐

Hot take but only liked Jess and Rory as FRIENDS who flirt. He was a jealous ass

Dean and Rory both were in the wrong

Felt bad for Lindsay honestly but then they did get married to young in my opinion

And then when Rory came to Emily and Richard to live with them when LORELAI LEGIT TOLD THEM WHAT HAPPENED AND THEN EMILY PLAYED THE VICTIM CARD LATER. LIKE OKAY????

When I fly towards you

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS.

No complaints. Genuinely. Fell in love with every character

The judge from hell

I have a thing for detectives…like um they’re so hot????

Loved the whole concept (even my dad liked the show so he it speaks volumes!)

Tell me lies

I only watched it for Thomas Doherty and like it was okay??? Lucy and Stephen are both huge red flags and Oliver and bree thing was a bit eww

Thomas did great acting as usual but his character deserved better lmao

The atypical family

Great show. Great storyline. Great acting from everyone just that the ending felt a bit rushed. Aside from that loved every second of it.

A new change in Kdramas honestly and they ATE

Love next door

Most people don’t like this drama (I honestly don’t know why) but I loved it.

It was slow paced and honestly a very realistic ending in my opinion. And for once the ex were great people. Both second and main lead couples are (even the parents)

Sweet home

Okay so I loved the season one but I just couldn’t get myself to watch the next seasons 😭.

Idk whyyyyyy I just felt like…meh I don’t wanna watch it

YOU (season 1)

I dropped the show after finishing the first season and like…I just got bored 😭. I did get why Joe was like…oh let’s start a new life and then bam kills more people!

Gossip girl reboot

Um so like didn’t finish it but I heard people say it’s second season is better.

I mean from what I watched it’s good but it just isn’t THAT good for me to finish it in one sitting

Taxi driver (season two)

ATEEEEE. LOVED IT. DEVOURED IT.

I knew I could count on them. Can’t wait for third season hehe

Call me bae

In some parts I lowkey cringed but then I actually loved it. It was actually something new and fresh in Bollywood and Ananya Pandey did great acting.

Hopefully there’s a season two

You are desire

Honestly never had the chance to complete it but it was so wholesome. I wanna get back to this drama asap

Everyone’s acting is top notch and the friendship! Oh god 😭. I want something like that toooo

But yeah I like the female lead as well.

Transformers prime

So uh rewatched my childhood show with my brother and 😳

Wheeljack hello there buddy. But I am a Arcee girlie. She’s such a baddie 🥺.

Took a break. Gonna try and remember what else I watched…

Nvm these are all I can remember but yeah that’s that…and the exam went okay 🥰

[ask-obt]

I feel like this question has already been asked but i can’t remember and I couldn’t find the answer by searching his tag, so: What was the role of Akio in the original OBT? From what i can tell he’s meant to be Rune’s son, but what about his father? Is there a chance he could appear in the current comic, or would he just be repurposed into a new character? (Sorry for long prompt btw)

// the explanation was a bit buried into this ask here (which also talks about other plot points from old OBT), but I'd be happy to give a more accessible version of an explanation as well as some extra context! so akio is the remnant of an arc I had in mind for rune from the very early era of preboot OBT up until I officially scrapped him in 2020. october 6th, 2020 in fact (happy die day you little freak)! in old OBT his role was to be the son of rune and some rando from the luxio tribe in a one night stand, mostly to stir drama between her and kodali. later on it turned out that luxio had the same name as one of my partner's characters (a mew named Xander), and we joked about Xander shapeshifting into a Luxio and blending into the tribe and getting together with rune... and then I made doodles of a vulpix with fun little mew traits, and got attached to the idea! around that time I was gearing up for the reboot of OBT, so he's... well, I was gonna say alolan, but this was actually my first doodle of that fire opal vulpix concept!

and then I thought "actually it'd be more fun if he was kantonian and also will help differentiate his design from rune" which is where you get the current iteration of his design that I use for memeing purposes

then with this being in the reboot timeline, it meant it started intersecting and butting heads with other arcs I had planned. I can probably go more into detail with that once we're a bit further along in the story, but basically rune was A Little Cringe for the circumstances she ended up with xander in the reboot, which would've ended up giving akio a bit of tasty insecurity as he got older and realized he resembled his dad in several ways he didn't like.

one of those ways being that he was flirty, but didn't want to commit to having a family

but that said... these were all headcanons for akio when he was older, aka either in the epilogue of OBT or in a potential sequel. which would've meant I'd have to carry around a baby character that I didn't really have any strong feelings about, a character arc for rune that was fitting with the story less and less over time, all for an epilogue or sequel that may or may not have seen the light of day. don't get me wrong, i still LOVE the idea of exploring this type of arc. but... does it have to be rune's son? she has a bunch of other arcs to explore, and her experiencing motherhood was just complicating the story in a way that wasn't fun to write. overall, it stopped fitting with the themes of OBT and needed to be cut in order to tell the story I actually wanted to tell. so nowadays, akio is a funny little in-joke with myself as a remnant of a long forgotten storyline, and is floating around my brain like a dvd screensaver. maybe someday he'll find a home in a story (he'd be more likely to find another life in my original project before OBT), maybe I'll use him in some sort of RP/collab, or maybe he'll keep collecting dust. only time will tell!