#but it’s a discussion through a snowglobe | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

scarletttries · 2 years

Text

You Are In Love (Eddie Munson x Reader series)

Part Ten: Dancing in a Snowglobe, Round and Round.

Pairing: Eddie Munson (Stranger Things) x F! Reader

Tags: Hunter's back and being shitty, but otherwise all fluff :)

Word Count: 2.2k

Author's Note: This is the tenth part of an Eddie Munson series inspired by Taylor Swift's "You Are In Love". Links for other parts on my Eddie Munson Masterlist :) As always please feel free to send me thoughts and headcanons for Eddie Munson <3

And so it goes, You two are dancing in a snow globe, 'round and 'round.

As he passed through the hall littered with decorative posters, late enough to have missed home room but right on time to blend into the sea of students getting ready for their first classes, Eddie thought two things:

One: He couldn't help but think that the theme of 'Winter Wonderland.' for this year's prom was more a reflection of budget constraints and leftover decorations from the Middle School Snowball dance than an inspired choice.

And Two: Way too many people were smiling at him today. Eddie was used to a certain amount of stares and attention as he roamed the halls of Hawkins High, but usually they came with a certain cruel tinge of disdain that was noticeably missing this morning. In fact, by the time he was sat in his first class someone had gone as far as to give him a high five, Eddie completely oblivious as to why, worried some cursed gate had opened somewhere, and this was just another upside down version of this town. His morning seemed to pass in a flurry of smiles and nods, leaving the metalhead thoroughly baffled as he sat at his lunch table, excitable freshmen adding the undetermined celebration.

"Congrats man, you must be pretty excited!" Dustin cheered as he settled at Eddie's side, Mike nodding along with his joyful friend, if not a little less enthusiastic.

"What are you talking about Henderson? And why is everyone smiling at me like they suddenly have manners?" Eddie scowled, irritated in his confusion until Dustin pieced it together,

"Did you miss morning announcements again?" Dustin asked, unimpressed with Eddie's efforts at punctuality this year,

"Literally always, spit it out."

"They announced the prom queen nominees this morning, and (y/n) was one of them."

"Everyone's smiling at you because let's be honest, no one thought you'd be going to prom with possible royalty." Mike summarised somewhat sarcastically, Eddie already out of his seat and halfway across the cafeteria by the time he finished the remark. You were mid-sentence when you saw a black blur come flying towards you, the full weight of your boyfriend crashing down as he launched himself into your lap, a frenzied cry of 'Congratulations!" drawing the attention of half the room. The other half quickly followed at the chair beneath you toppled at the added weight, landing you both on the floor in a tangled mess of limbs and laughter.

"Sorry sweetheart, are you okay?" Eddie asked, slightly embarrassed by the scene he'd managed to cause until he caught the beaming smile spreading across your cheeks,

"I am now." You replied, lips finding his for a chaste kiss as a teacher across the room began to call out, "One student per chair please!" You both found your feet again, Eddie squeezing your hand before turning to the girls sitting at your table, watching this scene unfold, no longer surprised by your level of antics,

"I assume congratulations are due to you as well Chrissy?" He quizzed as he picked your chair up off the floor, checking its structural integrity before pulling it out for you to sit back down on,

"Thanks Eddie, but i'm not sure you should risk any more chairs congratulating me!" She laughed quickly, getting the words out before Eddie could be tempted by another hug-based tackle.

"As you wish. Apologies for the interruption!" He said with an old-fashioned flair, bowing chivalrously before leaving your table to return to its discussion of all things dates and dresses.

---

Eddie hadn't bothered attending either of his two previous senior proms, unsure why anyone would subject themselves to being surrounded by classmates for a whole evening, outside of school requirements. But as he stepped into the hall, decorated with glistening streamers and sparkling balloons, there was nowhere he'd rather be. And with you on his arm, no-one he'd rather be with.

You found it almost surreal as you watched Eddie disappear off to get you a drink, leaving you to take in the surprisingly pretty room you were in for the night, the flurry of sparkling snow-like decorations hiding a multitude of sins. You'd thought about prom a lot through your four years at Hawkins; the dancing, the music, the date (feeling very pleasantly surprised in who that had ended up being.) The importance of this one night felt like it had been drilled into you since years before you were old enough to go, but as you watched the twinkling lights and swaying forms dancing around the room, you felt an odd feeling wash over you. It wasn't excitement, or nerves, or anything you were expecting to feel. Instead you felt content. Like in fact tonight was just a night. A fun night, sure. A night where you'd dance with your friends, and kiss a cute boy, and feel excited about the great outfit you'd picked out. But it wasn't The Night. Maybe it was your nearing graduation, and the chance to finally get out of this small town, but clarity seemed to strike you in that moment, that you were going to have hundreds of special nights, and that this was just going to be one of them. So as Eddie returned, drinking in hand, nervous for this perfect night with you, you actually felt resoundingly calm, knowing you had a lifetime of imperfect nights together still to come.

"Good evening Hawkins, if you have not already voted for prom royalty please do so now, as we will be revealing your king and queen shortly."

---

Eddie felt his heart plummet to the icy depths of the mariana trench as the results were announced: Chrissy and Jason won. As he watched you happily celebrate your friend getting something that felt really important to her, he couldn't help but feel awful. Like maybe if you hadn't broken up with Hunter and started dating the Freak, you'd be the one holding a cheap plastic tiara. Like once again his presence in your senior year was tarnishing it, a side effect of your relationship that he was sure would test your patience eventually. But as you stepped down off the stage, back towards your solemn looking date, his wavy hair and rough-around-the-edges suit making him immediately obvious in the center of the dancefloor, you couldn't help still feeling like a winner.

Smiling brighter than if you'd won a contest, you scooped Eddie's hand up in yours, pulling him closer until your arms could drape over his shoulders, swaying against him in time to lulling music.

"Have I already told you just how handsome you look tonight Eddie?" You flirted eagerly, the blushing response from Eddie enough to make you giggle every time,

"Only a dozen or so times, but I've always said flattery works on me, so keep it up my beautiful queen." He charmed back, leaning his nose to meet yours in the slow melody of your moves, faltering on the final word before adding,

"I'm sorry about that by the way." You shook your head happily, brushing off his commiserations,

"No need to be sorry love, I'm happy for Chrissy." you paused and added, "unless you didn't vote for me, in which case you should be a little sorry." You pouted with the accusation, Eddie quickly rebuffing,

"Of course I voted for you sweetheart." Sealing his words with a kiss before sighing, "I just meant, if you weren't dating me, maybe you'd have won." You watched his warm brown eyes trail down to his scuffed boots, a perfect Eddie addition to his unusually formal outfit, and thought about your response for a moment.

"Maybe." You agreed, much to Eddie's surprise, expecting you to dismiss his thought, feeling all the worse for the confirmation. " But prom queen's a title I'd only get to keep for the next two weeks of school. And if I play my cards right, I get to keep you forever. So really there's no competition." You teased, watching the soft lines form on Eddie's face as he frown released naturally into a smile at the thought, his future endlessly brighter with you in it. You reached up, planting a soft kiss on his cheek, leaning back only to find Eddie's hold on your waist tightening. Hugging you against his chest until your feet barely skimmed the ground, Eddie squeezing flush against his, spinning himself in the spot and only putting you down once he was satisfied your excited squeals were audible over the gentle music.

Finally setting you back on your feet, Eddie brought a hand softly to your cheek, looking deeply in your eyes with an ecstatic grin on his face,

"You know you could play your cards wrong and still keep me right?" You laughed as you nodded, his grip on your tightening again as he spoke, threatening to repeat his dance moves if you tried to squirm away. "In fact, you could bring my DnD cards to a poker table and still be stuck with me. There's no cards you can play to escape this." And he set again, twirling you in the air, round and round, relishing in the happy laughter that poured out of you as he did.

And with his optimistic words, you could feel all the excitement and nerves for the future you expected tonight to bring, but it wasn't about the dance. It was about Eddie, and the life the two of you would soon be setting out on away from all of this. What felt like closure to your time at Hawkins High, felt like a world just starting to open up for the rest of your life. With him.

---

It never ceased to amaze Eddie just how perfect a night with you could feel. Even in a room of recycled decorations, and music he'd never allow on his stereo, he could feel his cheeks aching from a night of endlessly smiling with you. He'd practically had to force himself off the dance floor to trudge to the men's room, cursing nature for calling him away from you for even one song. As he washed his hands he couldn't help laughing at his own reflection in the grimy mirror; he'd tried his best to tame his wild hair for the night but after all the shapes he'd thrown, it was just as big as ever, his cheeks flushed with excitement, eternal smile plastered over his face as he heard the door crack open behind him.

"Speak of the devil." Hunter said sarcastically upon seeing Eddie, the usual band of lackeys following closely behind him, "or should I say devil worshipper." It was almost impressive, the careful way he measured his tone to sound both cuttingly cruel and entirely uninterested in the now worried boy before him. Even though your relationship had gone from strength to strength after his last interaction with Hunter, Eddie couldn't help but feel the sting of fear at the turmoil and hurt his next unpleasant statement might bring.

Holding his hands up in defense Eddie spoke confidently, "I was just leaving, no need to get your spear out Hunter." He couldn't help but feel a little victorious at the small laugh he drew from one of the jocks to the left of Hunter, who looked thoroughly displeased that Eddie wasn't speechless in his presence this time.

"I would never, I just wanted to say I hope you have a good rest of the night." Confusion spread across the faces beside him until he continued, "You know. Going home alone. Because I can assure you, getting in (y/n)'s bedroom is going to take you even longer than graduating." The crowd around him erupted in the kind of big laugh Eddie was used to, but it barely registered to him as he looked at the vicious look in the jock's eyes and realised in the months you'd spent dating Hunter you must have never had him up to your room.

Eddie's mind was suddenly awash with the early days of doing homework in the middle of your bedroom floor leading to make-out sessions that left rug-burn on both his knees. The nights spent curled up at your side, fingers tracing along your warm flesh as you nuzzled into his chest, his owh shirt draping from your shoulder as you drifted off together. Every precious moment he'd spent with his body draped over yours, fevered desire guiding your hands across him as you'd waste entire afternoons exploring every tattooed inch of him.

Hunter was projecting. And as Eddie watched the poison smirk spreading across his face, he wanted to laugh. And brag. And boast. He felt like finally had something he could hold over the head of this arrogant prick of a man, who had picked ruthlessly on him for being different, and yelled at you over your kindness all those months ago. But watching Hunter's confident facade start to waver in his calm silence, he instead said,

"You have a good night too Hunter." A sincerity in his voice that left the gang in baffled quiet as he swanned out the door, realising how little any of their opinions meant to him now. Now that he had a way out of town, a better sense of himself, and you.

You Are In Love taglist:

@lacrymosa-24 @aftermidnightwriting @fluttergirl1202 @tayhar811 @souls-rain @neewtmas @kimmi-kat @wintrrrsoldier @dylanmunson @sidthedollface2

@eddiemunson95 @mistiatmosphere @singularattitudeofasafetypin @omgsquee2001

#writing #fanfiction #requests #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #stranger things #stranger things eddie munson #eddie munson stranger things #eddie stranger things #eddie x reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie my beloved #stranger things 4 #stranger things requests #you are in love

54 notes · View notes

cartoonus-maximus · 5 months

Text

Notes and Observations on FNAF TFTP Vol 3: Somniphobia

So… Volume 3. It sure is a volume. Regrettably, I was bored through most of it. Like, I enjoyed it more than I did Volume 2, but that's an extremely low bar. I thought the Epilogue was the best part of the whole volume, tbh.

These are my notes and observations made while listening to the audiobook, which I borrowed from my local library. Fair warning: there will be spoilers. If you want the whole experience for yourself, you should skip this and go read/listen to the book yourself first.

I like the cover art, though. It's simple but fun. Just the way I like my silly children's horror books from Scholastic.

Note to any Moon fans who just happen to be here: he only shows up at the very end of the first story. He doesn't say anything. In fact he mainly just stands there and stares weirdly at the protagonist. However, he and the protag end up walking off together to "seek out adventures," so there's that. Do with that information what you will.

We also get a surprise appearance of Ballora in one of these stories! Which I found to be a very pleasant surprise and one of the highlights of this volume.

Here are my observations on the other books from this series, if you are interested.

That's enough intro. Let's get into it.

"Somniphobia"

Somniphobia -- the fear of sleep. Generally caused by bad experiences with nightmares, sleep paralysis, or other bad experiences had while sleeping.

The story opens at a yard sale, where an older married couple are scoping out the yard sale that their neighbors are putting on. They discuss the reason behind the yard sale, and tell us that their neighbor's son has mysteriously fallen into a coma, and because of this the neighbors are selling off a lot of their possessions in order to pay medical bills. One of the items being sold by the family is a toy that belonged to their son -- a snowglobe-like toy with a Daycare Attendant Moon figure inside. The implication is that this Moon globe is the reason for why this boy has mysteriously fallen into a coma.

We then transfer our attention over to our actual main character, a high school boy named Sam Barker. Sam and his friends are eating lunch and talking about weird fears that they each have, from cliffs to clowns to amusement park rides. Sam apparently has a long, extensive list of fears, so much so that his friends roll their eyes and make fun of him. (And no, none of the fears listed at this point will be important later. Wasted foreshadow potential.)

Later that evening, Sam and his friends go to a party at a classmate's house. He's too socially awkward to really engage much with the other party goers, so he mostly just… hangs out.

He ends up talking with Lydia, a girl he's had study group with before, and she flirts with him before trying to get him to try an alcoholic drink with him. Sam refuses the drink, talking about how unsafe and unhealthy alcohol is. When Lydia tries talking about how she wants to try cliff diving, Sam starts telling her what the statistic likelihood is of her being injured or dying from that hobby. Obviously uncomfortable, the girl politely ends the conversation and leaves.

Sam's friends all harangue him about being such a wet blanket. One boy, Jules, tries to force Sam to drink the alcohol (to lighten up!), and Sam has a panic attack. Sam goes home alone, and his friends, feeling bad about sending him into a spiral, leave shortly thereafter. Jules argues that he was "just joking" and didn't do anything wrong, but the other three boys in the friend group tell him off. (Well, at least these kids don't universally suck.)

Some time later, one of the members of the friend group, Raad, decides to spend his birthday at the Pizzaplex. (Because it's soooo common for high school seniors to spend hours at a Chuck E. Cheese place, I guess????) The whole group goes with him.

(The audiobook narrator mispronounces "Fazer-blast." Not important to the story, just mildly annoying.)

At the Pizzaplex, Glamrock Freddy and Roxanne Wolf walk around the building, interacting with visiting children. Sam wonders if they're human employees in costume or if they're the real animatronics. (Pretty sure those are the animatronics, pal.)

Despite wanting to hang out and have a good time with his friends, Sam feels overstimulated. He thinks of the Pizzaplex as "constant sensory overload." He thinks everything is too loud, surrounded by the noises of the arcade games, animatronic performers, music being pumped over loud speakers, and the general chatter of the patrons around him, and he can't escape the smells of pizza, popcorn, and cotton candy.

Raad takes them to an arcade room of the Pizzaplex. He says he wants to win a "Moondrop Dream Sphere," which is apparently a top prize in the Pizzaplex arcade. He explains that the thing -- a little ball with a figure of the Moon Daycare Attendant in it -- lights up and is supposed to 'help you slip into a hypnotic state and focus better on things.' The toy "is supposed to take things from your subconscious and bring it more clearly into view." He says he thinks it could be helpful for studying, as he is desperately failing physics and is willing to take any help he can get. (That's… so weird.)

The DA character is called "Moondrop the Jester" in this story.

The boys apparently come here often, and already have 790 tickets saved up. Since the Moondrop Dream Sphere costs 1,000 tickets, the boys are determined to earn them all today. They manage it, earning 1,001 tickets and earning their new toy. Thrilled with their winnings, the boys return back to Raad's house to try the thing out.

When Raad pauses to greet his pet dog, Sam immediately launches into a story about a man who had his face eaten off by his own dog. Raad does not enjoy the anecdote, or the implication that his own dog might do that. (Oh my god, Sam! Ya gotta install a mouth filter, buddy. Some thoughts need to stay in your head.)

(Sam gives me autistic vibes. Don't know if that's intentional or important or neither. And given the fate of the *last* character to give me autistic vibes, I'm a little wary at this point.)

The instructions on the toy advise only using it for 10 minutes a day. Setting a timer, the boys take the snowglobe/jester toy out, along with their school notebooks, and prepare a "hypno-study session."

Once the Dream Sphere is turned on, the boys are sucked into some sort of shared, lucid dream experience, where they're all sharing knowledge and memories from their textbooks. They walk around the Egyptian pyramids out of Jules' history notes, while also reading and memorizing physics facts. When the ten minutes are up, the Dream Sphere powers itself down, and the boys return to themselves.

Raad lets Sam borrow the Dream Sphere, and he takes it home with him. Sam uses it to study the next day, and it leaves him feeling so good and happy and energetic afterward, that he cleans up the apartment he and his mother live in and even cooks dinner for his mother.

The following day, Sam decides to use the Dream Sphere again, this time deciding to use it for 15 minutes, blatantly ignoring the instructions that came with it. (A strange thing for the "everything is dangerous and you could die, actually" guy to do.)

"Sam heard rock music blaring from his mom's bedroom. Mom was painting again." Lol. Anyone walking in on me doing art.

"… like a human computer downloading a file." … Interesting way to phrase that.

After staying in the Dream Sphere for 15 minutes, Sam finds himself reliving a memory from his own childhood, a memory of playing in the park with his late father. Something "blue and gray" shifts in the corner of his vision. (Hello, Moon!)

Over the next few days, Sam uses the Dream Sphere more and more, using it to re-experience the time he spent with his dad. He uses the sphere for longer than the instructions suggested each time. Every once in awhile, he thinks he sees a hat with a bell or something blue out of the corner of his eye, but it's always gone when he turns to look.

Sam's mom grows concerned about the toy when Sam mentions that it's supposed to put him in a suggestive state. She jokes that he's going to come out of it "clucking like a chicken" one of these days, but she also genuinely expresses concern about it, commenting that something like that can't be terribly healthy. Sam discounts her concerns, but also doesn't tell her the truth about his usage of the toy - that he's reliving the memories of his dad.

One night, Sam struggles to sleep, feeling keyed up and anxious. He only calms down once he takes the Dream Sphere in his hands.

The next day, Sam has "a bad case of brain fog" and is irritable and unfocused. He spaces out so badly at one point that he doesn't even realize a class is over, and ends up snapping at Lydia, his not-girlfriend, and picks fights with his friends. (This story is extremely obviously a metaphor for drug addictions.)

After being unfocused and irritable all day at school, Sam goes home and uses the Dream Sphere again. He finally relaxes, and feels like he belongs in the "lucid, dreamlike" world of the Dream Sphere.

The Sphere no longer makes him feel happy and energetic, like it did the first few times. Now it makes him feel relaxed and tired. When he looks in the mirror, he almost doesn't recognize himself: he looks paler than usual, with deep bags under his eyes, and has his fists clenched as if in preparation for a fight.

"He tried to smile, but it didn't look natural. He gave up on trying to look happy, and went out to meet his mother." (Paraphrased, but roughly what the text says at one point.)

Sam forgets a commitment he made to help a friend with something, and then blows off his mother when she reminds him to do his chores. She points out that he hasn't done his chores or worn clean clothes in days, even though he's usually so good about those things. She zeroes in on the Dream Sphere, the only thing new in his life that she knows about and something that she knows he's weirdly defensive about, and she tells him to give it back to Raad. They get in a fight about it.

"Are you doing something that you are not supposed to be doing?" (It's okay, Mrs. Barker, you can ask if he's using drugs. These books are rated for middle schoolers and up, you're allowed to reference drug use in this manner.)

Mad at his mother for her "wild accusation," Sam retreats to his room, where he uses the Dream Sphere again.

He has strange dreams that night and doesn't sleep very well. He feels bad enough the next morning that he tells his mother he thinks he needs to stay home from school, and, after checking him over and thinking he seems genuinely sick, his mother agrees.

Sam and his mother have a talk, both apologizing for the fight last night. They talk about Sam's late father and how they both miss him. (Weird to see a healthy family relationship in these books.)

Sam spends a long time with the Dream Sphere that day, reliving memories of his dad. He has a realization that his dad would probably be disappointed in some of Sam's recent choices.

Sam and the Dream Sphere go through all of his memories of his father, finally reaching the day his father dies in a motorcycle accident while Sam is still a young child. Sam doesn't want to relive the memory, and he forces himself out of the lucid state and shuts off the Dream Sphere.

Even with the Sphere shut off, Sam is still trapped in the memory, reliving his dad's death. He tries shutting the Sphere off again, and this time it works. Terrified of this experience, Sam finally snaps out of love with the Dream Sphere, and decides that he needs to return it to Raad immediately.

Catching sight of his reflection in a mirror, Sam sees that blood vessels have burst in his eyes, and he's bleeding in them.

Sam goes to Raad's house, only to find no one home but the dog, Brutus. To his surprise, the front door is unlocked, allowing him to walk directly into the house. No one is home. He calls Raad's cell phone, and Raad answers, saying that he and the other guys just got out of school; when Sam tells him the door was unlocked, Raad gets frustrated with himself for leaving it unlocked. Raad says that he and the other guys are heading back to his place after school, so if Sam wants to just wait around for them they should be there in about 25 minutes. Sam agrees.

Back with the other boys, Raad tells the others that it's Jules' turn with the Dream Sphere next. Jules, fully knowing that Sam is waiting for them at Raad's house, decides they should make Sam wait, and cajoles the other guys into coming with him to the Pizzaplex to try out a new arcade game. (Because obviously we can't have them being good friends or showing up to help their friend in any way. That would be too inconvenient.)

While waiting for them, Sam considers the Dream Sphere one last time. Against his better judgement, he decides to use it again. He doesn't even bother setting a timer this time.

This time, Sam lucid dreams a perfect world. He asks Lydia to go to prom with him. She readily agrees, seeming pleased that he specifically asked her. During the dream, he gets a phone call from his dad, who is still alive and tells him that his mom just sold her first painting, and the family is going out to celebrate. Sam can't remember ever feeling this happy before, and is thankful that the Moondrop toy gave him such a good dream this time.

He comes across the Moondrop Dream Sphere. He finds this strange, since he's never seen it as part of the dream before.

He also starts to hear sounds trickle in from the real world, and he realizes how long he's been in this dream world. He also realizes that he never actually plugged the Dream Sphere in anywhere when he arrived at Raad's house (it's an electrical device, so it shouldn't work unless it's plugged in), and that it just magically turned on by itself when he willed it to.

(… Really? We're doing this? Ugh, fine.) While Sam is trapped in the dream world, he can feel his face being eaten off by Raad's dog.

Moondrop the Jester appears in this dream world (yes, the full-size Daycare Attendant) and watches Sam while Sam writhes in pain. Shortly, the pain subsides, presumably telling us that Sam's body has died. No longer in pain, Sam no longer cares about that sort of thing, and purposefully turns his back on reality, choosing to follow the Daycare Attendant deeper into the dream world, "eager to see what new adventures they could create together."

I don't understand the ending. The story was set up for Sam to fall into a coma due to overuse of the Dream Sphere, likely due to drowning in the dream world, but instead he gets his face eaten off by a dog and (presumably) dies on his friend's couch? Why? What was the point of the opening scene then, if not to foreshadow the ending? What the point of introducing Sam being having him talk at length about how he can't swim and how he's afraid of water? Does the art of foreshadow mean nothing anymore?

And this may come as a surprise to (-checks author credits on wikia-) Kelly Parra, but dogs don't just randomly eats people's faces off while they're asleep! DX That's a dumb ending to the story!

I do like the idea of Sam essentially walking off into the sunset with the Daycare Attendant, though. That part of the ending amuses me greatly. (And I can think of several people I've seen online who wish they could walk off into the sunset with the DA, lol.)

Sam in this story be like: "Friendship ended with reality. Now Moondrop is my new best friend."

"Pressure"

(-tries to restrain self from humming "Under Pressure"- -fails miserably-)

This story centers around a group of high schools by names of Luca, Nolan, Maddy, and Asher. Luca is our protagonist, and, like any good FNAF book protagonist, Luca isn't particularly fond of his friend group. Also like any good FNAF teen group (or really just teens in any horror media, actually) these kids are all incredibly annoying and unlikeable as characters.

The group originally formed a friend group because the three boys -- Luca, Nolan, and Asher -- play together on the school football team and enjoy the same horror movies, and Maddy, one of the school cheerleaders, is both Nolan's girlfriend and Luca's childhood friend and crush. (There's an unnecessary amount of drama regarding Luca's feelings about Maddy.)

The teens are visiting "Urban Legend Roleplayers Auditorium," a section of the Mega Pizzaplex where customers can dress in costumes provided by Fazbear's and participate in a LARP game with other costumed customers. The game is specifically to act out the "rumors and ghost stories that had become associated with the Fazbear Entertainment brand over the years."

While other kids fight over costumes of the animatronic characters, Luca wants to play the night guard, citing that he wants to "play the hero."

Even though the murders are brushed off as fictitious, Luca believes they really happened. This makes him a bit of a conspiracy theorist. His friends think his beliefs and interest in the whole thing is weird, and Luca hates having to defend himself against them.

(Wow. Assuming the child murder *actually* happened in the past, Fazbear's really just looooovvvves making light of it, don't they? And, if the murders never happened, if it's all just rumors and hearsay and ficticious stories, Fazbear's is still really invested to using these stories are part of their brand. Because nothing says family fun like ritualistic child murder and deadly haunting, amirite?)

The kids look at different play scripts for roleplay games they could choose from. They gravitate toward one called "Green-Eared Killer," a short rp script about three teenagers who break into the Fazbear Frights haunted house and get stalked by Springtrap, with the kids having to try escaping before getting killed by Springtrap. (… I just had a flashback to an rp thread I wrote with a friend ages ago, with a very similar plotline.)

Despite wanting to play the nightguard in a different scenerio (and despite believing that the murders really happened and people really died), Luca gets bullied into playing Springtrap for the game. He's not into it, but the other three really want to play the teen victims in this slasher set-up.

(…. Luca. My good dude. If a girl calls your eyes "platinum magic," you should *absolutely* ask her for a second date.)

The Springtrap costume is extremely ugly, realistic, and smells terrible. It also feels gross and crusty.

Luca doesn't want to play a killer, even if it's fake, because one of his childhood friends really was kidnapped and found dead weeks later. Luca had thought of his friend like a little brother, and it hurt and horrified him that something so awful could happen to someone he knew. He still had nightmares about it. His friends don't know about this, and just harass him until he agrees to play Springtrap for them.

(If these kids don't shut up soon, I'm going to start stabbing them myself.)

On the way to the game room, Luca (in full Springtrap costume) passes by some younger girls who are playing. One of the girls is dressed as Foxy and is mock-lunging at the others, and they all seem to be enjoying their game, which Luca finds cute. He then notices an adult male employee also watching the girls, the grown man watching them too closely and smiling to himself about it. The man is very clearly a creeper, and it disgusts Luca. Luca starts to go confront the man, only to get distracted by some little boys running past him. Looking back at the man, Luca sees that the man has turned his attention to the boys, the same creepy, too-interested-for-comfort smile on his face. Luca decides to go confront the creep, but gets distracted by one of his friends calling to him. When he turns back, the man is gone.

(This creeper's description makes me think of Pinkypill's design for William Afton, since he's described as pale and thin and gaunt and having blue-eyes.) (Yes, I'm aware that Afton literally has silver eyes in those books, but it's specified that his eyes used to be blue, so I'm counting him as 'blue-eyed.')

(Also this scene is very reminiscent of the "Go Go Go, Foxy" minigame from FNAF2, with the imagery of Foxy playing with a bunch of children while a creepy, smiling guy stands nearby.)

The kids enter the game room they'll be using. The room, or rather set of rooms, has been designed to resemble something like the Fazbear's Fright horror attraction. Wall decor includes both old Freddy's memorabilia, children's drawings, and sets of fake knives (for some reason). One section of the rp stage shows what looks like children's birthday party that was abandoned midway through, with paper plates and party hats strewn across the table and floor. There are also other animatronics in this set-up - a Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica on a central stage, and a Foxy in Pirate's Cove. These animatronics are more like statues than anything else, but have some mobility, as they can move their arms up and down.

As Springtrap, Luca starts the game in a "safe room." He also has a prop knife.

(I love how there are no knives ever in any of the games, brandished by any character for any reason, but in every single book featuring a killer in a rabbit suit they are *always* portrayed with knives. And of course, Lillard's iconic knife usage in the movie. But the games get a total of 0 (zero) knives, and at this point, I just find it comical.)

The kids start their game. As Luca starts to stalk his friends, he feels something inside his costume "gauge his arm." Other parts of the costume start to poke and prod him at various points. Irritated, Luca can't wait to get out of this costume.

At one point, he hears Balloon Boy voice lines play over an intercom, the same way it plays in FNAF3; Luca recognizes this game as a VR game.

SpringLuca and Maddy both get jumpscared by Foxy, who almost brings his hook down on both of them. Luca jumps, and something inside the Springtrap costume clamps shut around his leg, puncturing him. Luca cries out in pain, but his friends think he's just playing the character and trying to scare them, so they run away like they're supposed to. Luca can feel his leg bleeding, and he tries and fails to get his friends' attention.

As the game progresses, Luca gets stabbed by more and more parts of the costume. His friends all find places to hide and Luca feels like he's alone in the rooms. He tries to take the costume off, but can't figure out how to. He only gets punctured more for his efforts, and ends up bleeding and in a lot of pain.

Luca grabs Maddy, trying to alert her to his injuries. As he does, metal parts of the costume clamp around his head, pressing against his skull and into his scalp and even pressing into his mouth, and several small hooks attaching the costume head to his own flesh. He almost falls to the ground screaming in pain.

A series of snaps sounds throughout the costume, and Luca feels himself getting pierced in several places. He howls in pain, and, for the first time in awhile, his friends all pause, staring at him. Maddy, Nolan, and Asher, thinking Luca is just playing and getting into character, pretend to be scared and all scramble away in mock fright. They laugh gleefully and run away while Luca suffers.

Luca considers just sitting down somewhere near the exit door and waiting for his friends to get bored. But he's been bleeding pretty heavily inside the costume from his injuries, and feeling woozy from the pain and blood-loss, so he decides his best course of action is to continue trying to get his friends' attention. (Because that's been working so well for him. -rolls eyes- )

(Shouldn't there be employees nearby? Like, this roleplay set-up is essentially an escape room for kids, so shouldn't there be a Fazbear employee nearby, just for safety? Couldn't Luca try to get the attention of an employee?)

"A row of pizza ovens… dark and empty…" (Well I should *hope* they're empty! Last time I saw a pizza oven in Fazbear's Fright, there was a whole man in it!)

Okay, and now we have a brief convo about mob mentality. (Well, group think, but y'know. Same difference. And I recognize that this story is trying really hard to be a warning about the dangers of peer pressure, but it's not doing a good job about it, and this whole convo feels very hamfisted.)

Luca gets separated from his friends so much, he can't find them anymore. Feeling too weak and woozy to continue looking for them, he collapses, curling up in the corner of one of the fake storage rooms.

Asher, Nolan, and Maddy leave the game, deciding it's over. They barely even notice that Luca isn't with them. Literally leaving their friend behind, they decide to go get a pizza. (I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say that I think each of these kids should have gotten stabbed in the leg with a big knife. Ugh, they're the worst.)

After taking a rest, Luca manages to get back up. His shoes are now soaked in his own blood. While Luca is wondering if his friends are still around, he notices prop costumes moving nearby, as though someone had brushed past them. He hears a door open and slam shut somewhere nearby, following by many small footsteps and children's voices. Luca realizes that this group of kids are taking their own turn at the "Green-Eared Killer" game. He then realizes that that means his friends have abandoned him.

"He would [wait for the kids to leave] before approaching the exit door, pounding on it until someone opened it. Or until he died. Whichever came first."

While waiting for the kids to move on, Luca ducks into a dark corner where they won't see him. From this new vantage point, Luca is able to see that creepy man from earlier has entered the game room, and is putting on a Springtrap costume himself.

"… the pervert in the rabbit suit." Idk why, I just thought this line was funny.

Even in severe pain and believing that he's actually dying, Luca makes up his mind to tackle the creep before he hurts anyone.

When he hears one of the kids screaming, Luca begins to fear the worst. He follows the sounds to where the terrified little girl is trying to escape the grasp of the creepy man. Having enough of this guy, Luca tackles the man, putting him in a choke hold.

(And it's made very clear that this isn't a misunderstanding or anything -- this man definitely has bad intentions for these kids. We're not told what those intentions are exactly, but clearly it's nothing good. The kids don't even seem to know him, and the little girl he grabs actually bites him to get away, something children usually only do with people they don't like or strangers.)

Luca dies while strangling this man, ensuring that they both die together. Luca's last thoughts are about how this, his final act, is the first time in a long time that's done something for himself, of his own accord, because he felt it was the right thing to do.

I have a few observations about parts of this story:

First, I need to say that the vibes of that ending scene made me think of this scenario from skeletoninthemelonland. Just, Luca embodying his new rabbit form so completely, while also deciding that he's going to take control of his body back, and using his last bit of control to take down a man who is an obvious threat… Made me think of the fan concept of Spring Bonnie not being happy with Afton using it to harm children.

Second, I find it interesting that the general public knows the story of the Fazbear murders and hauntings, but the facts around them are so murky that anyone who believes they really happened is labeled "a conspiracy theorist." Outside of the Fazbear higher-ups, no one knows for sure if the murders happened or not, or how much truth is attached to the stories, if any. I just find that interesting.

And thirdly, let's talk about Fazbear's business tactics. Whether the murders really happened or not doesn't matter -- Fazbear's is capitalizing off of the stories. Which is just… so gross and weird. Because whether the stories are true or not, this company, which markets itself to children and families with children, is attaching stories of child abductions and murders to its brand, and attaching it so openly that children are encouraged to act out these stories on the building's premises. Can you imagine going to Disneyland and they openly talk about some of the shadier goings-on in their industry, and were encouraging small children to act it out? Wouldn't that be weird and make you feel gross?

So yeah, just further confirmation that Fazbear's is a godawful company and is nothing but harmful to its customers and employees alike. What else is new?

"Cleithrophobia"

Cleithrophobia -- the fear of being trapped, or locked in a small space.

There are stained glass windows in the Pizzaplex. We are again told that the Pizzaplex is shaped like a giant pizza - circular, with wedge-shaped sections for different activities.

We open on a group of teens who are visiting the Pizzaplex together for the first time, and are exploring all the different activities they can try out. They pass by the roleplay section (as seen in "Pressure"), the climbing tubes (as seen in "HAPPS"), a Chica-themed Tilt-a-whirl, a broken down AR booth (as seen in "Under Construction"), a dining room, a carousel (as depicted in the "Help Wanted 2" game), an arcade, the laser tag arena. They also spot the theater, and remark that there is a "little kids play area under [the theater]."

The kids have acquired a map of the building, and are pouring over it to see if they missed any attractions during their initial walk-around. Eric points that the index lists a "Ballora's Fitness and Flex" section, but that it's not depicted anywhere on the map images. Deciding to ignore it, the kids get in line to ride the indoor roller coaster.

The story then flashes back to "Five Months Earlier," refocusing on a man named Grady, a technician who works at the newly built Pizzaplex. Our protag Grady is doing rounds through the building, checking each of the individual attractions before opening. While everything is dark and turned off, he thinks the building feels a bit like an empty circus tent.

Grady is part of a team of three technicians. The team are working under orders to stay together at all times, but, when the other two knock off early, Grady chooses to stay behind to get some extra work in; they're behind schedule, and Grady would rather do the work now than come in to do on the weekend.

The computer system of the Pizzaplex has recently been installed, but something is wrong with it. It was storing data just fine at first, but the system glitched for some reason and lost all the data at once. Because of this, a lot of the technical aspects and programming around the Pizzaplex is having to be re-coded again.

A use of the word "phenom" that feels very forced. (I don't know, that word's just weird to me. I've literally never heard it before in my life until FNAF started using it.)

Grady goes to work on "Ballora's Fitness and Flex." This attraction in the basement of the Pizzaplex, and features vertical climbing tubes that run up and down the walls, allowing kids to climb up and slide down them. There are ladders to reach the openings of the tubes. The tubes are narrow and strangely shaped, with the shape of them meant to encourage the climbers to slightly contort their bodies -- not enough to hurt, but enough to encourage a level of flexibility. (This sounds like a dumb idea, but okay.)

(Also this is just real life Chutes and Ladders / Snakes and Ladders.)

Because of a traumatic experience with a babysitter (who locked him in a closet for several hours instead of actually babysitting, an experience that caused child!Grady to injure himself, become dehydrated, and eventually pass out from lack of air), Grady has a severe fear of tight spaces.

Unfortunately for him, he's the only one of the technicians who can fit into the climbing tubes in Ballora's Fitness, so it's his job to enter them and check to make sure they're safe. (Which I have to say, is extremely dumb. They're plastic, see-through tubes. They either work or they don't. It's not like they're connected to the computer system.) He's also going to check on Ballora and make sure she's functioning, as the animatronic ballerina is present in this section of the Pizzaplex; to get to her, he's still going to have to go through the tubes. (Why does he have to go through the tubes, though? I don't understand any part of this set up.)

Almost as soon as Grady starts climbing, Ballora pops up through the floor on a platform sticking out from the wall. She turns to look at him (wow! Open eyed Ballora!) and greets him cheerfully. This version of Ballora is just her upper body (so torso, arms, and head) and is attached to a mechanism that moves her throughout the attraction. Her hair is styled in a bun and comb like a flamenco dancer. She also usually sings in short verses in lieu of regular speech.

"'I encourage you to slide on in,' Ballora started singing again. 'That's the best way to begin.'"

Grady doesn't like Ballora's singing; he thinks she sounds sinister.

Ballora assures Grady that she's here to make sure he doesn't get stuck in a tube. Soon enough, Grady does get stuck, and Ballora, mounted on the mechanical arm, enters the tube to pull him out. She pulls him too hard though, and it nearly wrenches his arms from their sockets. She pulls him all the way through the tube, cheerfully unaware of the injury she's causing to Grady, and drops him off on one of the wall platforms.

"Please, can I help? I want to help." (Big fan of this take on Ballora's character.)

As much as Ballora wants to help, she either wasn't programmed properly or has some sort of glitch in her system (possibly from the system-wide computer crash). The next time Grady needs her help, she grabs him too hard and ends up crushing his hands and shattering his finger bones. Further "help" from her ends up breaking other bones in his body, including those in his arms and legs. Unable to hold his hands properly anymore, Ballora tries to grab another part of Grady's body, leading to her accidentally stabbing one of her fingers through his eye, and then breaking his nose.

Grady's coworkers Ronan and Tate return, as they carpool together and Ronan forgot his housekeys at the Pizzaplex. While they're here, they realize that Grady is doing the check-up on Ballora's tonight, so they decide to check in on him.

(Unrelated to the story, but I am madly, desperately in love with Ronan. I need this fictional side-character man carnally.)

Ronan and Tate check on Grady. They come face to face with the mangled remains of Grady, still in a tube. His body is broken in many places, and he's been stretched to "nearly twice" as tall as he normally is. Ronan nearly throws up, while Tate looks closer at Grady, eventually determining that Grady is blinking and therefore still alive.

I know Tate is just supposed to be an annoying self-centered loser prick, but I think it's weird that he knows just a little too much about the legal workings at Fazbear's and is a little too comfortable around a mangled body. His knowledge and behaviors are super suspicious, and for no reason.

After some inspection of what's left of Grady, the two men think their coworker has mere minutes left. Tate believes it's worthless to call for help, as he doesn't think Grady would survive the rescue. Unknown to either of them, Grady is still alive and slightly lucid, able to hear their voices but not understand most of their words.

In the end, the two men leave, abandoning their coworker to his fate. In his dying moments, Grady is still being pulled and tugged on by Ballora, who is trying very hard to help him get unstuck.

As Ballora continues to drag his near-lifeless body around, she keeps repeating "You are stuck. Let me help you. I want to help you. You are stuck. I want to help you." She seems to be glitched out, and is either unaware that her charge is injured or knowing that he's injured and being unable to do anything about it.

I didn't have many notes to take for this story. Not much happens in it -- just a game of IRL Chutes and Ladders gone terribly wrong. That doesn't mean I don't have a few thoughts about it, though.

I like the inclusion of Ballora, though. I'm intrigued by the idea of Ballora being in the Pizzaplex somewhere, but she's been locked away, closed off from everything else.

I also liked the segment of the unrelated teenagers checking out all the attractions that the Pizzaplex has to offer. The segment gives us a clearer idea of what the Pizzaplex looks like in these books, and revisits some areas we've already seen (like the AR booth and the climbing tubes) while also showing us a few areas we haven't seen yet. Makes me wonder if we're going to a get story later down the line that focuses on the theater area.

The story mentions there being a weird glitch in the computer system at the Pizzaplex, telling us that the whole system -- including security systems, the arcade machines, the lights, and even the animatronics, since everything is connected to a single system -- all crashed and now behaving strangely, and the technicians are basically having to go through everything piece by piece and reprogram everything. Makes you wonder if this crash was random, or if it was directly caused by something… Like, for example, someone hacking into the system that shouldn't have been there (like Patient 46) or an AI entering the system (like the Mimic) or a virus being uploaded to the system (like Glitchtrap). Food for thought.

This story focuses really hard on Grady's trauma and its origins, when it absolutely doesn't need to. The most it needs to say is that Grady was locked in a small closet for several hours by his babysitter. But instead, we spend quite awhile reliving Grady's memory with him, as his babysitter and her boyfriend trick him into the closet, and Grady screams and cries for over an hour, only for help to nearly arrive too late. The story spends more time on this, Grady's original childhood trauma, than it does on his slow death by Ballora's attempts to help. I don't know if that's important or anything (and I only say this because it's not the first time we've seen a terrified child locked in a closet by a cruel teenager in this franchise), or if the writer/s simply focused on the wrong section of the story.

And again, suspicious Tate is suspicious. I don't know he's meant to stand out as a suspicious character or not, but… there's a weird amount of attention put on him. Grady thinking Tate looks uncannily like his original abuser, with similar facial features, similar mannerisms, and the same cocky smirk. It's made clear that Tate isn't interesting in doing his job well, but that he also know entirely too many specifics about the Fazbear's employee rules -- the same rules that he pretends not to know or care about when Grady asks him directly about them. He's shown to be oddly calm about Grady's predicament, so much so that he's described as "gawking at [Grady's remains] like he was looking at an exhibit at a zoo," and he's even the one to decide to just leave Grady to his fate.

(I also think Tate gives off Michael Afton energy, but maybe that's just me.) (Or maybe I'm getting wires crossed and thinking of Michael Tait. Who can say?)

(If you don't know who Michael Tait is already, all you need to know about him is he's a Christian performer who would definitely be on Scott's radar. All I'm really saying here is, if the character Tate is meant to be some sort of parallel for Michael, the real person Michael Tait may have inspired Scott or one of his team members to choose the name "Tate.")

Epilogue:

Lucia and her friends listen in fear to the monster's footsteps. The teens have locked themselves in a small store room, and they can hear the thing (the Mimic) stalking around outside, searching for them.

The teens decide to split up to look for possible exits. Team 1 is Hope and Nick, Team 2 is Adrian and Jase, Team 3 is Lucia and Kelly, and Team 4 is Joel and Wade. The teams are chosen largely based on which kids are already friends and work well together, with the exception of Lucia and Kelly, who don't know each other that well yet but don't dislike each other.

Jase is an artist and has a good memory, and draws them a map of the Pizzaplex and basement based on their earlier exploration of it. They divvy up all the rooms and areas in the Pizzaplex, each team being given a list of areas to search. (Pretty standard "teens in a horror story" explanations.) Once their stalker vanishes, the kids make it back upstairs, where they begin searching.

(I don't understand what they're looking for. I thought they were looking for a way out, but now Lucia and Kelly are searching the bathrooms, so I no longer know what they're doing.)

Wade and Joel search the employee lounge. They get scared out by a scraping sound coming from inside the vents in the walls. (I wish they had gotten jumped by a Mini Music Man. That would at least be funny.)

Nick and Hope search the backstage area of the theater. Hope feels like she's being watched. Nick opens a costume wardrobe, only to get grabbed by something and pulled inside. He's returned a moment later, but is now missing an arm. Metal arms reach out of the wardrobe to grab Nick again, this time twisting his head clean off his body. The metal creature steps into full view, and we get a description of it from Hope's point of view, telling us that it's definitely the Mimic as seen in the "Ruin" DLC. Hope runs away from the Mimic, surviving this initial encounter.

Meanwhile, Kelly and Lucia are now best friends. (Or they're flirting. Unclear.) They're interrupted by Hope running past them, screaming in terror. The two girls follow her, and are soon joined by the two pairs of boys. The rest of the teens try to get words out of her, but Hope is sobbing and shaking too hard to answer them, only wailing when they ask where Nick is.

The kids duck into the Parts and Service room and lock themselves into it, hoping to find a safe location or impromptu weapons they could use to defend themself.

Lucia describes the Parts and Service room as "looking like a beauty parlor for robots." She says there are three metal chairs in it that have clamps on the armrests, somehow looking like both salon chairs and torture devices. (Oh, like the Shreddy Fazchair from the movie, perhaps? Or maybe something akin to Roxanne's salon?) There are also several empty exoskeletons of Fazbear characters littering the room, though done of them resembling characters we've ever seen before -- there are dogs, and a cat, and another, undescribed character wearing green overalls.

Hope is finally able to tell the others what happened to Nick. When she finishes her story, one of the exoskeletons moves behind her, apparently not as empty as previously thought.

Wearing the suit of a dog character, the Mimic grabs Hope by the arms, tearing both her arms off in seconds. While the other kids scream, the Mimic turns Hope around, tearing off her legs, and then her head.

All at once and in a panic, the kids run to the door, too freaked out to open it at first. They finally get it open and run for their lives, the Mimic following slowly after them.

(It's weird that the Mimic tears off her legs. It wasn't programmed to do that.)

(But good… The epilogues are really getting interesting now. Love that for us.)

#five nights at freddy's #tales from the pizzaplex #a brief analysis #my thoughts and theory noodles #my tftp analysis

2 notes · View notes

abyssalpriest · 1 year

Text

A mostly personal diary entry but stems from talking w Lev

nsft + SA mention but the majority of it isnt about that. Under read more for length

I was talking to Lev last night about energy, specifically we were talking about. well. the fact that hes one of like two people including spirits now I can be physically near without wanting to throw up with fear for Trauma Reasons, and we were figuring out how to talk about sexual things without me having a, you know, meltdown because it was a Night. The suggestion came up where i think it was him who asked to speak about it through energy, basically both of us were trying to understand what the hell it is i need when im having A Time...

The exact context of it being sexual things is relevant context to me saying he specifically had this dome of distance between the energy he was speaking through and me, which in itself i think is energy (absence is an energy), but either way he was very specifically projecting "im not touching you and you can see where my energy/words are at all times in case I betray that trust, you will know", which left the conversation as like.. This sort of inverted snowglobe type thing where I was watching day-blue swirling energy above me. I wont go into what was communicated mostly because I was actually outside my body in the astral while he was possessing my body, so its hard to remember I mean, but.

It was really interesting, honestly, the whole discussion i mean including post-talking-through-energy. Mostly for the personal reasons of... Holy shit, Im right when i say "i work with and understand and love energy more than anything else". I felt like I could finally just understand what he was saying, i felt what it must feel like to not be fuckin Autistic because it wasn't just hollow words and expressions that make everything sound and feel like everyone hates me, doesnt want to be around me, etc. I didnt have to ask for clarifications for every damn thing of "do you mean that?" "did i do something wrong?" "are you mad at me?" because the conversation actually Felt like something. I felt like i was hearing something and not just having to react to ordered words. I could feel that we werent just talking but communicating, I could hear him, it was like ive been living in black and white and suddenly i was seeing the whole "colours" thing everyone talks about - not overwhelming, not new, just clear, full, like the very rare times once a year i stop dissociating and its not hyperreal its just Real.

I really struggle a lot with being incarnated because this world is so black and white, like lines on an architect's paper insinuating buildings as opposed to actually being 3D buildings, people are so linear, its... Very disorienting and... Im not going to say borderline-violating because I have to recognise im having a lot of difficulties atm seeing any sort of being near me or looking at or interacting w me as being uhhhhhhhh violating, i know thats just a trauma reaction to actual violation, but its very oppressive, ill say, to constantly have the world being so sticky, still, sedated-body-esque in how slow and unresponsive it is to my natural movement. Its like im either sedated moving through nothingness, or its oppressively unchanging, the presence and physicality and touch of the laws of physics here are just maddening. This plane is fucking weird. I often think though that im the problem, that im just insane ie it must just be part n parcel of being schizotypal, that i need to "get over myself" and just "accept" that im human and im not actually out of place i just want to be, because i keep wanting it to be that easy. I keep thinking its just i want to be somewhere else and therefore i feel alien so i should just learn to love being here and ill feel "normal", or i feel alien and therefore i want to be somewhere else so when i fit in ill "get over it", but no, listening to Leviathan talking to me like that, i didnt feel like i was fulfilling a wish IE making myself Feel like it was natural because i want to be Special, or "becoming" something different, i just felt like I finally was being interacted with. I felt like i used to feel meeting other australians where i was like "holy shit, we are real? im not just 'different' and 'bad at being irish' but 'australian living overseas'?" Its not that i need to interact with things and so i go off trying to find something fun to interact with, its that this plane doesnt speak my language, humans dont speak my language, etc, i DONT get interacted with not because im not trying hard enough to be present, but because im autistic, schizotypal, and those amplify my 'psychic' for lack of a better term abilities which just.... No, im not being a pain in the ass, selfish, purposely putting myself out of place bc i want attention. I actually AM right when i say i understand energy more than reality - for this and many other reasons.

Ive just been extremely lonely this lifetime for a lot of reasons even when spirits are right there speaking to me, the people I understand most, but the thing is im only recently after getting autism in my head as relevant to me after a life of thinking I wasnt on the spectrum... Of course i need to say im not giving up on this world, but understanding its not my fault and that there ARE things that CAN communicate with me really helps me start to understand how to actually find what i need. Im so sick of trying to fit in with this plane, so sick of pretending to be something that I am only because of outer physical appearance I have no control over and isnt an expression of my conscious mind/self, but getting confirmation its biologically in-built into me to be out of place here and not just a Skill Issue actually helps me because now i know how to start getting what i need. Im tenacious, I can live a thousand years in exile here if i know how to work my environment, but i have been at its unforgiving whims for so damn long now thinking I just deserved to be hated (instead of thinking maybe people dont hate me they just cant communicate that with me) and i shouldnt be here (instead of maybe I'm just carrying a lot of my unincarnated selves' connection to their planes) and ill never connect with anyone (instead of understanding i need to be communicated with in a certain way, and since i dont have a drive to have a community or many friends i can absolutely thrive with only getting this communication from a few people and just Playing Human with the rest)

Anyway. it dived into talking briefly about energy itself... Im still not at the stage of being taught yet where I could give actual thoughts with this, but he mentioned before how on the cross ("+") model of reality, Mental on the left, Material on the right, Reality is that middle vertical line... well one part as we see it (so when you look around physically, thats mostly experienced reality we'll say for lack of a term) is on the middle line (vaguely placed since what we see as this "reality" is multiple things) along with the energetic reality...? And he said before that energy is... subjective? Cant remember the details sorry. When I type these things up i get actual quotes and reference actual notes, this isnt official, but the way he was saying it was effectively "nope, energy is entirely subjective" even when i was like "hold on, but when people see things like 'the energy of the moon', i know they have different opinions on what theyre feeling but they still feel that something is there even if they disagree what it is"... Effectively what was brought up in the conversation was that energy is like language, specifically in regards to something I said in the notes on this post here about how humans arent meant to be seen as just flesh, language is used as natural skin or decoration - hence energy being a natural form of communication of the world makes that sentiment make sense... Humans and pretty much all beings use something as a medium between Mental and Physical to communicate whether its body language, writing, etc, or more so really what im saying is that the intermediary between Mental and Material is communication. like. reality frequently is described as language by both Lev and Hermes (and they dont agree on everything and the things they have resonant opinions on are often either spoken about in different terms or symbolism or have different perspectives), and so im like oh energy is another language of existence? but with the 'purpose' so to speak of communicating? Or being the medium of communication? which i guess now that i say that im reaaalllly understanding why i know im not ready to talk about this, that doesnt make sense, all reality is about communicating... but i definitely have another piece of the puzzle that when i put it together ill have an ACTUAL picture

#god im. trying so hard to mention sex is a thing that exists lmfao. for every 1 mention of it theres hours of.... yeah i dont need to #spell out trauma based sex repulsion but anyway hes helping me with it so i am trying to meet him halfway with regards to effort put in #and sometimes i just have to put on big boy pants and write the word to prove the words not going to leap out and bite my throat #ramblings //#diary //

2 notes · View notes

lampmanliveblogs · 2 years

Text

Edge of the World

Follow-up post

Better late than never, as they say.

There were quite a few things I glanced over or didn’t talk about that I want to bring up

As per usual, I rewatched the episode and here are few things I missed or didn’t talk about the first time through.

•In King’s dream sequence at the start of the episode, he asks the King of Dads if they can play catch; he later asks Tarak the same thing. •The mural in King’s tower that depicted what I (and King) thought was his father fighting some monster was actually showing a Titan Trapper fighting a Titan. •Titan Trapper Island is the remains of a Titan’s hand. A hand with five fingers. Ymir has four (I think) and King only has three. •One small clue that the Titan Trappers weren’t related to King is that we never saw any of them walk on all fours, like King sometimes does. In fact, their clothing was unsuitable for quadrupedal walking. •According to Tarak, Bill has met the Grand Huntsman, a.k.a The Collector. Is this true? If so, how? When? I was under the impression The Collector has been buried beneath so many thousand tons of bones for so many thousands of years. Then again, during the sacrifice ritual, they had a black tablet that looked similar to the mirror Philip used to contact The Collector. So Bill probably communicated with The Collector through that. •Another clue towards the Titan Trappers’ true identities: During the little bonding montage, they have King smash a piñata… a piñata with a familiar skull. •On the other hand, not one of them thought it was a bit weird when King used his voice powers on that big horn to blow a griffin from the sky? ”By the Huntsman, that kid has some powerful lungs!” •Here’s an obvious thing I totally missed: Bill says he saw the last living Titan. But it can’t have been King he’s talking about. So… what of that one? What happened to it after it disappeared? Was it King’s father? How long ago was this? •As someone pointed out to me, the Titan skulls in Bill’s shrine are fairly small, about King’s size, maybe a few are a bit bigger. Implying that those skulls came from babies or children. •The stars in the Grand Huntsman snowglobe and that can be seen when King lights the dark tablet on fire look like the magic stars the wizard in an old Bamse cartoon shoots from his magic wand. •This extremely cursed image of Hooty

(Note: We here at Lamp Entertainment will not be held accountable for any actual curses caused by prolonged viewing of this image. Why were you so easy to curse?)

In addition to these short points, there are a few things I didn’t discuss that I feel deserve a bit more talking about. So I’m going to do that now.

Last Son of the Boiling Isles The King of Tomorrow

Like I said, as I was getting towards the end of my liveblog, it was late and I was rushing to get it done. So I didn’t do every scene justice. Especially when it came to the tragedy King went through.

King spent a good portion of the episode thinking that he had FINALLY found out where he came from. Not only that, but his people immediately accepted him as one of their own. They even said they would help defeat Belos. He didn’t have all the answers yet; no one knew who his father was and they didn’t recognize the symbol from the tower, but surely, those questions would be answered eventually. After all, he had his newfound family to help him.

Tarak especially became like an adoptive uncle or father figure to King in the short time he got to know him. As I pointed out above, in the dream sequence at the very start of the episode, King asks King of Dads to play catch. He later asks Tarak the same, very clearly showing how King came to view him like a fatherly figure. And ever since the events of Echoes of the Past unlocked the memory of his father calling out for him, King has been on this search for his father, longing for that father figure.

Even as the strange ceremony became weirder and weirder and you could see King becoming unsure and confused, he still continued going along with it. Because he wanted so much to believe that he had finally gotten the answers he was looking for.

Then it was all torn away from him. In the span of a minute, he is told that he is a Titan, that his newfound family is trying to kill him, and then it’s confirmed that his newfound family don’t just want to kill him, but they are responsible* for wiping out is actual family.

(*well, the older generations of Titan Trappers anyway)

This is all to say that our skull dog Titan boy is going to be big sad for a bit now.

If we try and look on the bright side though: We are slightly closer to learning the truth. Not quite there yet though; there are still a lot of unanswered questions. For example…

Who are King’s parents? And what happened to them? Bill says he met the last living Titan and that obviously wasn’t King, so it must’ve his father then, right? Perhaps King’s father fled from the Titan Trappers and hid King’s egg in the tower off the coast of the Boiling Isles. But then what happened to him? Is he still out there somewhere or is he dead?

Then again… Bill’s poster referred to King as ”The Last Son of the Boiling Isles,” implying that King is maybe the progeny of Ymir itself?

What’s the deal with the symbol in the egg room? What’s the deal with the guardians protecting the tower?

The Lord of the Fireflies a.k.a. The Collector a.k.a. The Grand Huntsman, god of the Titan Trappers

Back when the world was new

This planet of ours was down on its luck

And everywhere gigantic brutes called Titans ran amok

Oh, it was a nasty place

There was a mess wherever you stepped

Where chaos reigned and earthquakes and volcanoes never slept

And then along came The Collector!

Before I go into all the questions and speculation I should bring up something I was told in a comment. I was told that The Collector goes by he/him, they/them (which was stated by Dana Terrace herself, as I found when I looked it up). So if you were confused in the liveblog as to why I seemed to switch pronouns for The Collector, that’s why. I just kinda goes with whatever pronouns sounds better in my head for any given sentence. And my head works in mysterious ways, as should have been demonstrated to you ample times by now.

With that established, let’s talk a bit about what was learned about the enigmatic Collector in this episode.

The Collector, if that is his real name, goes by another alias. The Grand Huntsman, the god of the Titan Trappers. My first reaction upon learning this was to think that The Collector was simply posing as a god in order to get the Titan Trappers to free him from his prison beneath Ymir’s corpse. But then I thought a bit about and… that might not be the case.

It’s not entirely clear just yet what it is exactly that The Collector collects. But my theory is that he’s collecting all the green, red, and blue rocks for his master, Mothman who… wait, no, I’m thinking of Kapten Svea again. Uhh…

It’s not entirely clear just yet what it is exactly that The Collector collects. But my best guess is that it’s strange and exotic beasts or monsters. And with a hobby like that, the epithet ”The Grand Huntsman” makes a lot of sense. So yeah, The Collector may very well be a straight-up god of the Titan Trappers, just going under another name. And gods having multiple names or titles is not unheard of either.

My current theory is that at some point in the murky mists of the distant past, The Collector was a very powerful magical entity that came into conflict with the Titans. God or no god, The Collector wasn’t powerful enough to take on literal giants. At least not all of them. So he founded a warrior clan called The Titan Trappers and became their deity

At some point, The Collector was trapped beneath the body of the Titan I’ve been calling Ymir (more on that in a bit). I wanna say this was at least a thousand years ago, but I can’t know for sure just yet. It has been mentioned before that the Boiling Isles has been around for at least a few thousand years, so if Ymir was the one who trapped The Collector in some sacrifice, then The Collector has been trapped for as long as the Isles has existed. That being since the death of Ymir.

Their contact and influence over the outside world severely limited, The Collector has nonetheless managed to contact at least two people in the last few hundred years who may be able to free them from their imprisonment. Those being Philip Wittebane and Bill of the Titan Trappers.

I have another little theory which there isn’t a whole lot of evidence for, but that I think is pretty cool. Recall I was surprised when it turned out that the Titan Trappers could use magic. That’s because I figured that since they didn’t live or grow up on the Boiling Isles, they wouldn’t be able to use magic since magic comes from the Titan.

Now, there are a few different explanations for this. They do (well, did) have that nifty portal to take them to the Boiling Isles and we did see Tarak visiting the Isles. He even had a penstagram scroll. So maybe they visit the Isles often and long enough to soak up some of that magic juice and that’s how.

Now, my idea that I had in my brainplace is this: What if The Collector gave the Titan Trappers the ability to use magic? What if, long, long ago, during the great war waged between the Grand Huntsman and the terrifying Titans, when the first group of Titan Trappers was founded, The Collector gave them the ability to draw upon the magic of the world and use it to fight the giants? I think that would be pretty cool, it kinda places The Collector as a sorta parallel to Ymir, in that they would both be a source of power for groups of people that worship them.

(and lets face, ain’t no way the Titan Trappers of the old felled some of the bigger, island-sized Titans with just some spears. They didn’t even have any maneuver gears for crying out loud! How do you expect anyone to take on a titan without vertical maneuver equipment?)

A lot of my theories on The Collector are based on speculation and conjecture drawn from small nuggets of information; there is a literal ginnungagap* of information. This enigmatic character is in most ways a mystery and I’m looking forward to finding out more about then, as I’m sure I will in coming episodes. Much like Loki** from stories of old, I’m sure this mischievous god will make his grand return during the Day of Unity, right as the world is about to come to and end.

(*continue reading and you will learn what that means and why that is a hilarious pun)

(**Loki was, of course, a trickster god from norse mythology. In one story, he tricked another god into killing the universally beloved Balder. As punishment for his crimes, the other gods tied him up deep within the underground to be trapped and tortured. There he remained until Ragnarök, the end of the world, when he broke free and joined the battle. You can see the similarities. And speaking of norse mythology…)

Of Fire and Ice

Once upon a time…

I wanted to take a moment to talk about something. That being my chosen nickname for The Titan which makes up The Boiling Isles: Ymir.

I believe that the very first time I mentioned that name was back in Adventures in the Elements in season one. I also brought it up when I showcased my Conspiracy Corner (which has been due for an update, hint, hint). Now, in the past, I’ve mostly just brought it up because I wanted to talk a little about norse mythology.

In the last liveblog however, I started referring to The Titan almost exclusively as Ymir. This is because in the past, The Titan was the only Titan I knew about. But now I know there were multiple other Titans once upon a time. So it might get confusing when talking about the Titans and The Titan. So a nickname for that individual Titan was needed. I could’ve gone with something like the ”Boiling Isles Titan.” But that is longer to type, doesn’t roll of the tongue the same way and is just kinda lame.

Ymir on the other hand is a short name, easy to type and read. But more importantly, it is a name that has history and meaning behind it. There may have been many Titans in the past of different species and sizes, but The Titan on which the Boiling Isles is based is still a very important individual amongst them. So it deserves a fitting nickname, and I believe that Ymir is just that.

If you’ll indulge me, I would like to tell you a story…

In the beginning, before the world existed, before there were humans or gods—there was just Fire, ice and the nothing. To the south there was the fiery Muspelheim, the land of heat, light, and chaos. To the north, covered in thick mists was Nifelheim, the land of darkness and the eternal cold Between them opened up the bottomless abyss Ginnungagap.

From a well at Nifelheim’s heart ran eleven poisonous rivers down into the abyss. Over time, the mists from the rivers formed frost and a layer of snow grew over the part of Ginnunagagap leading to Muspelheim Meanwhile, fire and sparks flew from Muspelheim. In the middle of the eternal abyss, where fire and ice met, the first living being was born from the meltwater. This was the horrible primordial giant Ymir.

While the giant slowly came to life, another creature appeared from the mists: the cow Audhumbla. From her teats flowed four rivers of milk, which the giant ravenously drank from. Once the giant was satisfied, he fell asleep and started sweating. Within his dark and damp armpits were born a man and a woman. At the same time, his legs beget a strange son, a monstrous figure with six heads. From this being descended the giants. These malevolent monsters soon started spreading throughout the young cosmos.

Audhumbla sustained herself by licking salt rocks in the ice. As she licked them, a male figure started appearing. This man was Bure and he had a son named Bor, Bor married the giantess Bestla and she gave birth to three sons—Odin, Vile, and Ve. They were the first gods.

The descendants of the primordial being, the giants and the gods, hated each other. And when Odin, Vile, and Ve came of age, they set out to end the giants’ reign and create order in the cosmos. And so they killed Ymir and made from his body the world.

From Ymir’s bones they made the mountains, from his flesh the earth, and his teeth they ground into gravel and stone. His hair became the forests and his beard grass. His blood became the lakes and seas and from his cranium the vault of the heavens.

(based in large part on Johan Egerkrans’ retelling of the story from his book on nordic gods that I bought in a moment of weakness the other day, alongside his book on dragons)

That’s the basic gist of that creation myth. There’s a lot of details I skipped over but you get the point. The world was made from the body of a primordial giant. You can see how I made the connection between Ymir and The Boiling Isles Titan.

All in all, I think Ymir is a fitting name for the Boiling Isles Titan. It was very necessary for me to retell the story for you to understand this. I’m totally not just in a mood to talk about norse mythology after I bought a new book about it, no, not at all. That’s just a coincidence.

In Conclusion

This is where I normally talk a little about my overall thoughts on the episode.

I liked it. There were, of course, a lot of lore and the revelation of King’s true heritage. The tragedy of King thinking he had found his lost family only to have it ripped away from him was good. Well, good story stuff, not so good for our skull dog son who is actually the last living member of a race of god-like giants. He’s probably a bit upset by it all. Add it to the pile of trauma our heroes are going through. Said pile is growing at an alarming rate.

I really liked the build-up to the reveal. The episode did a very good job of establishing that hope-spot, especially coming after Hollow Mind where everything went wrong. King found his family, and said family was a capable warrior clan that promised to lend their help in defeating Belos; it was almost too good to be true. Which it was.

Now, I was kinda expecting everything to go wrong, because I was explicitly told that every episode after episode 15 was sad. But still, even I was fooled for a little while into thinking that maybe we could have some nice things. For a little while.

Then we have the reveal itself. I think my reaction in the liveblog itself speaks for itself how I felt in the moment. And then they hit me with a double whammy with the reveal that the Titan Trappers’ god was actually The Collector. That was a cool reveal in and of itself and helped establish The Collector further as a serious player on the grand scale who is totally going to Do Stuff. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but it’s going to be something.

I think I talked a bit in my Mid-Season Intermission about how I thought that the origin of Bat-Queen might be tied into King’s origin in some way. My main reasoning for this was that tying several plot threads together like this makes for very neat storytelling. It means our attention isn’t drawn in several different directions at once. And having multiple story lines converge in one spot means that if, say, your company were to cut the story short, you can hopefully tie it up somewhat neatly even given very little time.

Ahem.

The point I’m trying to make here is that tying The Collector into King’s backstory was a good move.

So yeah, those are some of my thoughts on this episode. This post took about a week longer to make than it should have. Next up, I’ve got a bunch of asks that need answering and a completely overhauled Conspiracy Corner that I need to show off before I get into the next episode. So it’ll be a little while longer before I can get into the next episode. Until then though, take care of the planet Earth and remember that anything can happen in space!

<--Previous Episode: Hollow Mind

Masterlist

Next Episode: TBD -->

#the owl house #liveblog #the owl house liveblog #toh s2e17 #edge of the world

13 notes · View notes

ladykatakuri · 2 years

Text

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

Several of the Clones at 79s

TW: None, lill mention of virginity or loss of it, some drinking

W.C: 1501

Summary: A night out usually means drinks, dancing, flirting and just a relaxing time. In one booth, the guys play a little game...

A/N: First of all a big thanks to @imabeautifulbutterfly for doing the beta work on this one and inspiring me and helping me when I write. You are a rock ( even when sometimes I wanna shake you like a snowglobe! ) XO

This is just one of those things that pops up in your mind and you just have to write it. I hope you like it and as always, likes, comments and reblogs are always much appreciated 💖

It has been a normal night at the bar and all the guys were just having a drink and some fun. Some ventured to the dancefloor, joining all the others who were having fun together, solo or some in small groups as they swayed and danced across the floor. Spread out over the booths several groups were chatting with each other, some dancers were trying to attract their attention while others were just sitting and enjoying the view.

In one particular booth there was a discussion ongoing between several men of different battalions.

"Right, so what do you guys think?" Jesse looked around at the men gathered in and around the booth they were occupying. Taking a swig of his drink he pointed at one of the guys. "Come on, tell me what you think."

With his silver hair and serieus expression, Sinker was not the first people would think of when answering a question as the one Jesse posed, but here he was, grinning while putting down his now empty glass. "General Kenobi is no virgin. Have you seen that man? People meet him and swarm around him, begging for his attention. Maker, even some of the men are looking at him with lust."

The men all burst out laughing at that last part, some barely managing to hold in the drink they just had while others apparently managed to snort out the liquid through their nostrils. Loudly coughing, Dogma wipes away a stray tear rolling from his eye as Boil slaps him on the back. “True! It does not matter what gender or non gender or what race, they all seem to swarm around him like flies on sweet Jogan juice.” None of the men are surprised anymore that even the one who seems to be the more strict among them chimes in with a remark here and there. Dogma is quickly slapped on the back again by Boil as they all laugh.

“Right, here is one for ya…… General Luminara.” For a moment the booth falls silent as Fives has decided to throw in a new name to consider.

All the men take a moment to consider their answers, if they even had one.

“Not one.” Short and to the point, Comet answers and holds up his beer in salute before taking a swig.

Hold on….. She is the one that is fully robed all the time , right? I mean…. There is that one that sometimes is not in you know? Jedi robes?”

Most of the men nod in agreement to that as they either take a sip of their drinks or seem to contemplate the next candidate for the yes or no game they are playing.

“Wait… He does not have to answer why?” The question comes from the only medic in the booth and they all seem to raise their eyebrows as they look at Comet.

“Well…” For a moment he seems lost in his answer, unsure of how to word it. When he answers the tips of his ears seem to turn a little darker and he quickly takes another sip of his drink once he is done. “The General is hot, just look at her! I mean… Yeah… Just, you know, she is hot.”

Some can not help but tease him for a moment as he almost seems to try and drown in his glass, while the rest just chuckle or laugh at his answer.

Kix, knowing he threw Comet under the speeder cab with his last remark decides that enough is enough and adds a new name to the mix that has everyone stumped.

“General Yoda.”

None of them seem to be able to even answer this one and Kix quickly hides his grin behind his hand as he forces out a small burp. Reaching for his glass, he looks around the booth and the stupefied men, still trying to gather some coherent thoughts.

“How in the karking hells did you even come up with that one?!” Tup blurts out the question first and just stares at the medic of his group.

“That is not part of the game Tup.” Kix grins and winks as he orders another round of drinks for the booth.”But, seeing as how you were quick to question me, how about you answer this one?”

Tup just stares at his brother, who now has a wide grin on his face while enjoying both his drink and the stupefied look on his brother's face.

Not wanting to let Kix think he got the better of him, Tup takes a deep breath and answers, much to Kix`s surprise with solid logic. “Well, he is old and I mean really old right? We don't know how old he was when he became a Jedi, so I am saying not one. Don't even know how many of his species there are or even what kind of species he is! I'm pretty sure that that old geezer did the deed to ensure survival of the species.”

For a moment, the entire booth has fallen silent. They all just look at Tup when all of a sudden, Waxer slaps him on the back with a loud laughter. “Now that is how you answer the difficult ones! Good job vod!”

Looking at the chrono, Sinker motions at the men in the booth, “Time for a last drink guys, the commanders will have a fit if we show up after curfew and you know what that means.”

All the men mutter and order a last round of drinks, knowing full well that anyone caught coming in too late would be put on refresher duty or perhaps even worse. None of them were too keen on finding out what kind of punishment their commanding officers would come up with next.

“Right, here`s two for ya to think about then. Generals Fisto and Billaba.” Again, Fives has come up with two names that have the men thinking for a moment.

Waxer, who had been one of the least vocal in his opinions, looks around to see if any of them will answer. When none seems to have an answer yet, he speaks.

“General Billaba is still a virgin.”

Several voices rise to disagree when he holds up a hand to explain.

“She is seriously beautiful, really, she is. But, you know that Jedi are kids when they join the Jedi right? You know who her master was? You seriously think that man would allow anyone to come close to her and let her have some fun? Hence, virgin.”

Though most seem to agree with his logical explanation, some still want to disagree with him, but it is Jesse that stops them from even beginning the argument.

“General Fisto is most definitely not a virgin anymore.” Grinning, he looks around to see if any of his brothers will bother to disagree or ask why, but he is met with raised brows and an eye roll from Fives, as if it is obvious to everyone that this was the only correct answer.

“You didn't ask, but I am still going to explain why. The tentacles! They all want the tentacles.”

Nobody even dares to speak up after that statement and all seem too occupied with their drinks to even look at Fives who still grins as he looks around.

“To top this evening of fun and games off, I will now present you all with the final name in our little game. Please focus, gentlemen and gather your thoughts as you contemplate your answers!” Had they all taken a good look at Dogma, as he stood up, finished his drink and then decided to utter the last name, they would have seen the glimmer of serious mischief in his eyes.

“Palpatine.”

Several men, who had just taken the last bit of their drinks, could not help but cough and spit out their drinks. Others who were lucky enough to have already finished their drinks just looked at Dogma, mouths agape.

“Nope, not going there. What the kriff?! Are you crazy? What in the Sith Hells! Has your brain gone lame?” Just some of the things that were uttered by the men quickly standing up and moving to leave the bar, but to Dogma it was a plan well executed. Now, he had his brothers in different states of readiness to leave the bar, without having to drag and nag them about the time and how long it would take them to get back to the barracks.

Coming up from behind him, Kix taps Dogma on the shoulder. “Well played brother. At Least you can be sure none of us will be back late. You do know they will make sure to get back at you for this though, right? That last one will be causing some nightmares for sure.”

Dogma smiles and nods at Kix as they both leave the bar. Next time, he knows he will have to suffer the consequences, but it was well worth it.

Taglist:

@imabeautifulbutterfly@chaoticvampirejedi@hellothere-generalangsty@cyroku@reluctant-mandalore@uponrightful@zinzinina@saradika@galacticgraffiti@ashotofspotchka@dindjarindiaries@dinbeskarbaby@djarrex@djarinsbeskar@rowansparrow@photogirl894@rigelmoonshine@rigel-the-moonstrider@nahoney22@loth-wolffe@neon-junkie@bobafetts-princess@cyarbika@charnelhouse@zoeykallus@kin-rokku@jgvfhl@honestly-shite@here-comes-the-moose@dindjarindiaries@firstofficerwiggles@fictional-men-ruin-lives @ladysongmaster @lozalot @moonstrider9904@lorjukka@m-o-o-n-s-g-o-o-n-s @rain-on-kamino @monako-jinn-stories @middimidoris @wild-karrde

#star wars clone wars #clones at 79s having fun #Clone Wars Fan Fic #Jesse #Tup #Dogma #Kix #Fives #Boil #Waxer #Sinker #Comet #Some drinks and fun at 79s

13 notes · View notes

sizzlingpatrolfox · 1 year

Note

so jungkook clearly loves the movie

https://twitter.com/choi_bts2/status/1168195536182104065?s=61&t=l6-qkQ0VH2rhso_krItH5Q

https://twitter.com/jinkoobs/status/1474764469012250631?s=61&t=l6-qkQ0VH2rhso_krItH5Q

jimin and jungkook went when this was the theme so im sure jimin has an idea abt this movie and the doodle is INSPIRED by jack skellington but i dont think he’s that big of a fan of the movie cause he’s never mentioned it and he’s the type to never shut up abt his fav movie. i think he just likes skeletons in general cause he owns a lot of skeleton themed stuff. so he just got introduced to the skellington doodle through jk pehaps. not a big deal i think frnds find something cool from each other all the time

https://twitter.com/pjmjjk_/status/1662500182284460033?s=61&t=l6-qkQ0VH2rhso_krItH5Q

I don't understand why we're discussing this😅 It's been so many years.. and it doesn't mean anything to me in terms of their relationship, so I'll just say a few things quickly.

Yes, Disneyland Tokyo was themed after the movie when they went most likely because it was the Halloween weekend. And the movie has some correlation with Halloween.

It was never confirmed that Jungkook got that snowglobe as a present, or if he did, who did he get it from. Also, that's not Jungkook's house and I don't remember exactly if the toy was already there 🤔

Jimin never talked about why he did that doodle on his autograph, so we can't really know. And like you said, he's never talked about the movie either. So there's that. He also changed his autograph and stopped doodling the face a couple of years ago.

So, yeah.. All in all I just don't think this is a relevant topic to this day, sorry 🙏

1 note · View note

f1version · 9 months

Text

ANOTHER YEAR ‧͙*̩̩͙❅ DR3

pairing: Daniel Ricciardo x girlfriend!Reader ( she/her )

summary: You and Daniel spend the 25th of December surrounded by friends turned family, hoping it all lasts another year.

warnings/info: fluff, kisses, mentions of alcohol, mentions of mental health. this is just a lot of thinking, reflecting, and loving your partner very much.

word count: 770

note: this one is (very) short and sweet. inspired by another year by FINNEAS.

snowglobe, a holiday special

Days like these are your favorites.

You’re laughing at some joke Scotty made when Daniel slides the door open, beers in hand and a Santa hat on his head. The sun is setting over the ocean, Australian weather just right for spending the 25th of December in your beach house, surrounded by a small group of friends turned family.

“Hello everyone!” Daniel calls over the sound of waves breaking; everyone beams at him—those who arrived while he was at the store, greeting him with kisses on the cheek and hugs. He approaches you, leaning down to press a kiss on your hair and then your lips. “Hi sweetheart, how’s everything?”

“Good,” you smile, and he sits down next to you, searching for your hand once he’s comfortable.

Looking around, you see happiness. The people you love the most are here, sitting around the small fireplace, joking about the goddamn Christmas tree in the sand. Tony, your dog, is running around, then to you, licking your intertwined fingers with Danny. The Aussie laughs.

“Hey buddy, that’s mine!” He exclaims playfully, holding your hand up in the air. Tony barks at him, “Oi, don’t be jealous; maybe you’ll have a hand to hold next year."

You throw your head back, laughing. You love this man way too much. You loved his energy, his smiles, the love he had to give the world, and the love he reserved for you. You’re grateful you had another year next to him, even if 2023 wasn’t the easiest for him.

He always tried to look for the positives, but that didn’t change how challenging it was. You, more than once, kissed away his tears, held him close when nightmares haunted his nights, gave him his space when frustration was too much, and held his hand when battling with his diet. It wasn’t an easy year in any way, but in the end, he made it through, you made it through. Because he was also there when you cried, when you felt tired and overwhelmed. He was there when the world was about to end but didn’t, and you like to think that’s because you have each other. Because Daniel, for a bit longer than seven years, has been the reason for countless of your smiles, and you could only hope this would last yet another year.

You hear Chloe call your name, the Daniel’s, dog interference forgotten, “Where are you guys going to be in New Year’s?"

With Daniel, you want to say, but he beats you to it.

“With my sweetheart here, of course,” he says, dragging you towards him to rapidly peck your lips, making the others laugh. You blush, wanting to cry, laugh, and get married all at once; you know it sounds dramatic, but it’s that melancholic time of the year that makes you overthink everything, so if the ending of your story is sad, you need to cherish these moments next to Dan.

“What if you come up to Canada?” Lance’s question brings you out of your thoughts.

“No, please, no,” Scotty complains loudly, shaking Chloe’s hand exaggeratedly. “What if we just stay here? Do a small party at our lovely home."

Daniel shrugs. “We can do whatever you want, mate, just let us know before we end up running away to Monaco or Los Angeles. Right, babe?” He says and you roll your eyes, knowing you have no plans to leave Australia until 2024.

More of your friends join the discussion, adding the option of partying in New York or hanging out in Greece. It’s messy, but it doesn’t last long. The majority of you know that Scotty and Chloe’s penthouse in Melbourne will be the place to sing obnoxiously and get drunk on champagne.

Time passes, and a million topics are discussed. Daniel is asked about next year and doesn't look too worried; Scotty rants about Chloe’s next single and how it’s about him; you and Corey get into a discussion about the best movies of the year; Lance falls asleep on his chair for seventeen minutes, counted by his girlfriend; you’re even stargazing at some point, having Mike explain every constellation in the sky.

It’s beautiful.

You’re cuddled against Daniel, lost in the starry sky, when his own mind wanders away. He thinks about you and him, about how grateful he is for all these years next to you, about how he wants to have you close for the rest of his life. He thinks about the ring hidden in his backpack and smiles, hoping for forever.

taglist — @smartstupyd @ziarah @nouvellevqgue @iloveyou3000morgan @carsgovroomm @goldenalbon @doofenshmirtzevil-inc @panicsinvirgo . . . add yourself here

287 notes · View notes

queenxxxsupreme · 3 years

Text

Trouble Arises (dad!Arthur Morgan x reader)

A/N: Here’s a little bit of dad!Arthur for Father’s Day!

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings: none, fluffy dad!Arthur, protective dad!Arthur

Summary: While out with you and Daisy, Arthur runs into some trouble.

***

“Looky at this one!” Daisy tugged on a dress that was on a shop rack.

“I like the bow on that one.” You told her, eyes flickering over the dress. It was periwinkle with numerous ruffles on the skirt and an adorable bow at the waist.

Your husband was trailing quietly behind you, admiring the bright look in Daisy’s eyes as she went from dress to dress. It wasn’t often that the three of you ventured into town together, let alone that she was able to pick out her very own dress. So he made sure to enjoy every moment.

“Daddy! Look at this!” She stopped at a pink and white dress.

“That’s real pretty, ain’t it sweetpea?” Arthur looked at the dress. “Almost matches those shoes Papa got for you a while back, don’t they?”

“Yeah! The ones with the white bow.” Daisy nodded her head.

“Is that the one you wanna get?” He asked her, but the young girl was already moving on to another dress.

Arthur watched her look at the dress excitedly, bouncing a little where she stood when the excitement became too much to contain.

“You okay, Arthur?” You placed your hand on his arm.

“Yeah, just fine.” He gave you a smile. “How long you think it’s gonna take her to find a dress?”

“Do you want to be home at any specific time?”

“No, no. There’s no rush. Just curious.” He shook his head. “Let her take all the time she wants. She’s really happy, ain’t she?”

“She is.” You squeezed his arm and leaned in to kiss his shoulder before moving to be closer to Daisy.

Arthur started to follow you.

A familiar feeling began to creep up his spine. It was the same feeling that he could remember having all those years ago when he was a wanted man. Someone was watching him.

He came to a stop, allowing you and Daisy to walk ahead of him, and looked around.

Outside of the front shop windows, Arthur spotted someone looking in. They cupped their hands around their eyes and peered in through the glass. They were trying to find someone and seeing as Arthur and his family were the only ones in the store aside from an elderly couple, Arthur had a sinking feeling in his gut that the person outside was looking for him.

He quickly stepped behind a support beam that held the ceiling up. His eyes darted over to you. You were unaware of what was happening, brushing your fingers over the sleeve of a dress Daisy had stopped to admire.

But a sharp whistle caught your attention. It was instinctive for you to react to that whistle. It was his form of nonverbal communication back when you were running with the Van Der Linde Gang.

Your eyes instantly caught his. He tilted his head just slightly, motioning for you to come to him.

Though he hadn’t said anything else, the mannerisms made your stomach churn. Why hadn’t he said your name? Why was he hiding behind a column?

“Daisy? Let’s go over to daddy.” You suggested, placing your hand between her shoulders.

As you reached him, he took your hand and pulled you so that you stood behind the column too. Daisy was placed strategically between you both.

“Daddy, there’s a dress-,”

“Sweetpea, I know you wanna look at dresses right now but there’s something real important that I’ve gotta discuss with momma, okay?” He looked down at her, brushing a few pieces of hair behind her ear.

She nodded her head.

“There’s a couple of fellas outside.” Arthur lowered his voice as his eyes found yours. “Look over my shoulder around the beam behind me. “They’ve been looking in like they’re searchin’ for someone.”

You looked towards the window like he suggested and spotted the two men. They leaned in towards each other and then one looked back towards the window before the other looked towards the front door.

“Do you think they’re any trouble?”

“I don’t know.” Arthur rubbed the back of his neck.

“Then there’s no need to panic just yet.” You put your hand on his arm.

His eyes stayed on yours, a furrow nestled between his brows. He didn’t share the same thoughts as you.

“We don’t want to upset Daisy.” You reminded him, looking down at her. His gaze followed yours. She was on her tip toes looking at a snowglobe that rested on the table next to the column.

“You’re right.” Arthur sighed out, rubbing his eyes.

“Everything will be okay.” You kissed his cheek and rubbed his arm. “Daisy? Why don’t you tell daddy about the dress you want?”

“Okay! This way, daddy!” Daisy turned and took off across the store.

Arthur smiled as he watched her weave in and out of the racks.

“She’s very excited to pick out her own dress.” You told Arthur.

“I know. Talked about it the whole way here.” He chuckled softly. He turned his head to check the window. The two men were still there.

“You know, I can go out there and distract them while you take Daisy out the back.” You took Arthur’s hand in your own and began to walk with him towards Daisy.

“I don’t want you to have to do that, Y/N.”

“But if it’s what gets you both out of here safe, then I don’t mind it.”

“You think you’re any good at distractions?” His tone was teasing as he squeezed your hand.

“Oh, I like to think I am.” You leaned against him a bit. “Back in the day, I used to distract this really fine young man. I did it so well one time that he nearly got run over by his own horse.”

Arthur laughed, putting his arm around your shoulders.

“Hosea still won’t let me forget about that.”

“Good. It was rather foolish of you to be watching me instead of your horse.”

“I can list a whole bunch of foolish things I’ve done ‘cause of you.” He hummed quietly, pulling you closer to him. “But I wouldn’t change any of them.”

“You’re a charmer even after all these years. You know that?”

The bell on the front door to the shop rung, causing both you and Arthur to look in that direction. The two men that had been looking in were now inside of the shop.

Arthur put his hand on the small of your back and began to rush you towards Daisy.

“Take her out the back.”

“What about you-,”

“Don’t worry about me-,”

“You can’t just tell me that!” You whispered loudly.

“Hey, sweetpea?” Arthur put his finger over his lips, signalling for her to be quiet as he approached. He knew she would excitedly begin to tell him about the dress she wanted, but now wasn’t the time for that.

“What, daddy?”

“Mommy’s got to take you home.”

“What? Why?” She crinkled her brows together. “What about my dress?”

“Don’t worry about the dress, love.” You took her hand and began to tug her towards the back door. “We have to go–,”

“But momma–,”

“Daisy Jane.” Arthur knelt down to her level. “Look at me, sweetpea.”

Daisy met his eyes, her mouth pulled down in a frown.

“It’s real important that you listen to momma, okay? She’s gonna take you home where it’s safe. It’s not safe here right now. I love you, you know that?” He kissed her forehead.

“Daddy–,”

“I love you, Daisy.” He repeated, standing up to face you.

Your eyes were glossed with tears.

“No tears, pumpkin.” He murmured. He leaned in to kiss your cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you.”

You took Daisy’s hand and began to lead her towards the back door. You needed to get her somewhere safe.

“Momma, why isn’t daddy comin’ with us?”

You couldn’t bring yourself to answer her.

“It’s alright, love. He’ll be with us soon.”

***

You placed nervously on the porch. The sun was beginning to set behind the mountains. It had been a few hours since you got home and the anxiety in your stomach was becoming almost too much to handle.

You had thought about going over to Charles and Lucy’s house and maybe having Charles go to town and see what had happened, or even having them watch Daisy while you went into town alone.

Daisy was inside playing with her dolls. Hosea was inside with her. Carson was laying on the porch, big brown eyes watching you.

You were just about to turn to go into the house and get Daisy when you heard hooves beating against the dirt road.

Carson lifted his head, ears perked as he listened.

You looked down the driveway, one hand gripping the railing.

The faint outline of a horse and rider came into view. It wasn’t until a few moments later when you could make out the rider that you felt you could finally breathe.

Arthur was finally home. And he was safe.

You sat down on the porch steps, realizing then how achy your legs were. You hadn’t had time to sit down since you returned home with Daisy. You didn’t want to sit down. You physically couldn’t bring yourself to sit. The anxiety of thinking about what could have happened to your husband was too much.

Carson ran out to the barn to greet Arthur. The dog followed alongside him as he made his way towards the house.

You wanted to ask him what happened, to know if those men were lawmen or just trouble. But when you tried to talk, your voice became stuck in your throat and tears sprung out of nowhere.

Silently, he sat down next to you and put an arm around you. You didn’t notice the paper bag he placed on to the steps.

“I know…. I know it was scary.” He kissed the side of your head. “But I’m proud of you. You did real good, you know. We haven’t had to do something like that in years. You did good, pumpkin.”

“I-I thought you were…. I was so scared, Arthur. I didn’t want to have to raise her by myself.” You turned to put your face into his neck.

“I know. But I wouldn’t let that happen.” He kissed your head once more.

The front door opened and Daisy ran out with her arms wide open.

“Daddy!”

“Sweetpea!” He caught her, pulling her around into his lap.

“You were gone! Why were you gone for so long?” She frowned up at him.

“Oh, cause I was hidin’ from ya.”

“Daddy!” She crinkled her nose. Daisy looked over at you, taking note of your teary eyes. “Why are you crying?”

She reached out to wipe your cheek off.

“Cause I’m really happy daddy is back. I missed him.” You smiled.

“I missed him too.” Daisy tucked her head into his neck. Arthur kissed her hair and squeezed her a little.

“Don’t you worry, girls. I’m not goin’ anywhere.” He assured you both. “Sweetpea, I got a little present for you.”

“A present?” She pulled away from him, looking around to see where her present could be.

“I know momma and I told you that you could pick out your own dress, but- Well, things happened and that didn’t happen.” He picked up the bag and handed it to her. “Take a look inside and let me know if you like it.”

Daisy excitedly dug her hand into the bag and pulled out the pink and white dress she had been looking at. She squealed in delight and threw her arm around Arthur.

“Thank you, daddy! Thank you!”

“Aw, you’re welcome, sweetpea.” He kissed the side of her head.

“I wanna try it on!”

“I’ll be in in just a moment to help you put it on, Daisy.” You told her.

She scrambled to get off of Arthur’s lap and then ran into the house.

Arthur watched her disappear through the door.

“You think she’s upset about not being able to pick out her own dress?” He asked quietly. “I mean, I did tell her she’d be able to pick her own out.”

“Does she look upset, Arthur?” You reached out to cup his cheek. “She’s too young to understand why we had to leave the shop so soon. She wouldn’t understand even if we tried to explain it to her. All she knows is daddy brought her home a new dress and from the looks of it, Arthur, she really likes it.”

“Yeah, I reckon.” He ran a hand over his hair.

You leaned over to kiss his cheek before standing up.

“I promise you she’s perfectly happy.”

Arthur watched you walk through the front door of the house, leaving him on the porch.

Taglist: @winterwolf @lauramb7 @caraqas @bluscryn @krenee1drful @zodiacaldust @nonodino @cal-lifornication @thefirelordm @sargeantsea @sokkasdarling @thecollection @mayday1284 @kashasenpai @misskrql @brooke-supernatural16 @lassiee @hocdolliday @micahs-bird

#dad!arthur morgan #dad!arthur morgan x reader #dad!arthur morgan fic #arthur morgan x reader #arthur morgan #arthur morgan rdr2 #arthur morgan fic #arthur morgan fluff #oneshot #queenxxxsupreme

247 notes · View notes

misslilli · 3 years

Text

You guys are incredible, thank you so much ❤️ I don't want this story to ever end 😂

Felix Felicis

MSR. AU. PG-13. | tagging @today-in-fic | read on AO3

Chapter 28 - Miss Undercover

[ FM ]

Don’t judge me, but I’ve become a creature of habit when it comes to frequenting coffee shops at the exact same time on the exact same day for the third time in a row now. When I hear the door open, I turn my head to see a small figure coming in, in black leggings and black boots, the hood of a black sweater pulled down low to obscure her face. I don’t need that one strand of red hair poking out to know who it is.

Stopping to stand before me, she hisses quietly. “Face forward. And whatever you do, don’t say my name!” Obviously, she doesn’t need to see who’s standing before her, either.

Maybe it’s the new boots I ordered from Land’s End.

I’m thoroughly confused by now but I do as I’m told, whispering out of the corner of my mouth. “Hey Eminem, what the heck are you doing?” With her head down, I have to strain my ears to hear her speaking out of the hood.

“I’m incognito this week. Parents. Talks about report cards. Don’t want to be harassed.” Not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves, I stifle my laugh and order our drinks at the counter.

While we wait, some woman sidles up to us. “Miss Scully, is that you?”

With reflexes I’m quite proud of, I pull Miss Undercover into me to hide her face and the strand of hair from the woman’s eyes.

“Nope, not her. Just my girlfriend, she’s shy. She just had a bad case of the measles, you know, worst on the face, awful scarring… Bye now!” Balancing the paper tray with both cups in one hand, I lead Scully outside.

Once we’re safe, she steps away with a shove to my chest, glaring at me from under her hood, but I can see the smile tugging on her lips.

“Measles on my face, Mulder? You couldn’t come up with a better cover story?”

“Hey, I just saved your butt, a little gratitude for the Knight in shining armor?” I look down at the paper tray I’m holding to see that they haven’t put any names on our cups this time. “Aaaw man, they forgot our names this time. And I had such good names picked out!”

Scully takes a pen out of her purse and scribbles something on both of our cups, grinning. “There.”

I turn the cup over to read what she has scribbled and my eyebrows shoot up.

“Moose, Scully? I’m not sure if I should be offended at that.” I grab her wrist to turn her cup over as well. “And Squirrel? You’re a very strange woman…”

Laughing, she shrugs, pushes the hood off her head and we start walking, recounting our days this week so far. It sheds some light on her strange get-up, because it’s the last week before Christmas break and the parents come in to discuss the current status of their children’s report cards. And they seem to harass the teachers outside of school for a bit of a heads up of what to expect.

“You’re a pretty decent undercover agent, have you ever thought of joining the Bureau - you already have the perfect outfit!” She laughs and shakes her head.

“I’m sure they’d be so embarrassed by my love of rainbow colored outfits, they’d stick me in the basement to hide me away. And you’d be stuck having to check up on me, that I haven’t died from neglect down there for being the FBI’s Most Unwanted.”

“You’d be head of the Bureau in no time, we’re nothing but a bunch of little kids playing pretend, always misbehaving in some way or another, just like in school!”

“I’d give everyone who solves a case a golden stickers they can trade in to reach into the treasure box of sweets and pencils and mini-erasers.” The mental image of grown-up, tough as nails, Special Agents carrying guns with their own little star reward system is hilarious.

“I’m sure the solve-rate will go through the roof with those incentives!”

I’m a little sad we’ve reached our parting junction once again, I’m having such a good time just talking and bantering back and forth. It gives me a sense of calm, unlike the past few months when I’d spend my days obsessing over when I’m going to see her again. Now I know, it’s Tuesday afternoon after school. I hope it becomes a standing tradition.

We hug our semi-friendly half-hug goodbye and she gives me a little wave on top of it, before turning to walk back home.

“I’ll see you around, Moose!”

“You bet, Squirrel!”

—————

[ DS ]

I get home that day with a sense of calm I haven’t felt in a long time. The preparations of the Christmas celebrations have given me a much welcomed distraction and slowly, as the first flakes of snow fell, the ache inside my chest begins to let up.

Just like the snow settling inside a shaken snowglobe, I begin to see a little more clearly.

Countless sessions with both my therapist and my friends have been spent facing the demons of my past relationships and while it’s been a pretty bumpy ride, I feel like I’ve come a long way since that afternoon in the gym.

The girls are out grocery shopping, so I settle down on the couch with my e-book reader, diving into the world of The Seven Sisters, a series of books I’ve been enjoying for the past few years.

I get so lost in the adventures of one sister in Australia, I’m startled at the noise the girls makes when they get home from the store. Putting my Kindle aside to help them with the groceries, they pull me into their excited conversation about the upcoming field trip to the Chocolate Factory.

Once that topic has been exhausted, we move on to the Christmas party at The Cabby Shack. “Hey D, have you picked an outfit for the Christmas party yet?”

“I did, I’m wearing my favorite Christmas sweater, you know the one with Rudolph on the front and the red pompom for his nose.”

We’ve made it a tradition to wear our most cringey sweaters for this party and they’re always a big hit with the crowd.

“I’m glad we’re going this year after all. I thought you’d be much too sad to come but you seem to be doing better, D. Am I right?” Nodding, I give her a smile.

“Yeah I am. I feel like I’ve come out the other side, finally. In a big part thanks to you guys!”

“Ya, we’re pretty awesome, right girls?”

The casual meet-ups with Mulder, which are not as casual as they might seem, is the first thing I haven’t shared with the girls in as long as I can remember. And I won’t share my plans for the Christmas party with them either.

They’re my little secret to keep.

#your comments and tags keep me going ❤️#xf #the x files #xf fanfic #msr #felix felicis

27 notes · View notes

tricktster · 4 years

Text

i taught my baby niece how to say “wow” a few weeks ago, and obviously since I was the one teaching her, I taught her to say it like Owen Wilson

cut to today, where she’s taken my hand and we are walking very slowly through the house so she can show me my things

we stop at one of my aquariums. baby looks up at me, then gravely studies the aquarium.

tiny lightning mcqueen, after several moments of thought: ...wow.

next stop, the snowglobe.

hansel, but an infant: wow.

then, onto the picture of her several months ago.

drillbit taylor, whispering with incredible intensity: woww...

We also discussed a single bean that she pushed off of her high chair tray and onto the floor for about an hour today. It went something like this:

her, pointing at the single floor bean: BEE.

me, mouth fulla taco: BEAN.

her, thoughtfully: beem.

her, three seconds later, pointing at the bean on the floor: BEEM.

me: yup, that’s the bean still.

her, pointing with greater intensity: BEeM!

me: yup. bean.

her, considering this: beem.

twenty seconds later, as she notices the bean again: ... !!!!!!!BEEM!

(repeat)

241 notes · View notes

artificialqueens · 3 years

Text

Tree House Kisses, Chapter 45 (Adorney) - Scorpio and Veronica

A/N: Penultimate chapter! Only one more to go after this! Click here for previous chapters or here if you’d rather read on AO3. xoxo!

And thank you SO MUCH to wonderful betas: @saiphl, @sillylittlecandycane, @tumble4rpdr

Chapter Summary: Courtney forces Adore to have a conversation that she really, really doesn’t want to. (And nobody is surprised at the results except the two of them.)

Chapter 45: Jump the Gun

COURTNEY: It’s really hard to plan a road trip when you’re not talking to me.

COURTNEY: So you’re just doing this silent treatment thing again, really?

COURTNEY: ...

COURTNEY: I broke up with Roy.

COURTNEY: Can we please talk?

It was Wednesday, the night before their graduation, and Adore’s house was teeming with boisterous relatives. At one point, late in the evening, she escaped to the tree house with a sleeping bag, praying that no stray cousins would find her because she was running out of weed and really didn’t want to share. She curled up in a beanbag chair that was years past its prime and lit her last joint.

Courtney certainly was a crafty little bitch. She must have been sitting at the window, waiting to pounce the second Adore’s dim camping lantern turned on, because it was mere minutes before she was climbing up the ladder.

Adore shook her head. She should really have known better, should have just smoked in the dark.

“Why are you ignoring me?” Courtney demanded, once she was fully inside.

Adore scoffed, eyes rolling to the ceiling. At this point, she felt like it was all beyond explaining.

“It’s been over a week,” Courtney continued, voice thick with emotion. Adore avoided looking at her eyes, but it didn’t help--she knew even without looking that they’d be shining with tears. “I thought...I thought we weren’t gonna do that again.”

Adore sighed. She was right, of course. “I’m sorry. I just...I needed a break.”

“Why? A break from what? And for how long?”

“I...I don’t know.”

Courtney sniffled, asking, “Did I do something wrong?” Her voice was so small and sad and fucking pathetic, and it made Adore feel even guiltier than she did already.

“No. You didn’t. I’m sorry,” she sighed. “It’s hard to explain.”

Courtney seemed to accept that, nodding and wiping her eyes, sitting with her feet tucked under her. There was a pause, as she struggled to regain her composure.

“Did you get my texts?” Courtney then asked, chewing on her lip.

“Yup.” Adore took another hit, coughing slightly, resigned to hear all about the Roy drama, which she was sure wasn’t over. “So, what happened? Did you have a fight?”

“No, not really. We just kind of...well, I’ve been feeling like we were drifting apart for awhile, but I didn’t really want to admit it.”

It was news to Adore that they’d been drifting apart. They’d seemed just fine to her at prom. She supposed that maybe she didn’t know Courtney as well as she thought. It figured, given everything else that was going on.

“‘Cause I...I do love him. But, it’s not really fair to either of us to cling to a relationship just because it’s comfortable,” Courtney said, voice soft as she added, “Especially when I...spend so much time thinking about someone else.”

Adore’s head snapped up and she let out a short, incredulous huff. “You’re unbelievable.”

“What?”

“You’re already onto some other guy?” she asked, shaking her head.

“Wh-no. Other guy? What? How high are you?”

“You just said you’ve been thinking about someone else,” Adore said crossly.

“Yeah-”

“So, who is it? This fucking new guy you’re thinking about?”

Courtney blinked at her for several seconds before bursting out, “It’s you, you fucking idiot!”

“What...do you mean?” Adore’s mind reeled. She was stoned, and couldn’t fully trust her senses, because it sounded like Courtney was saying…

“I mean…”

Courtney paused, taking a deep breath, even closing her eyes briefly to center herself before she continued.

“I mean that I can’t stop thinking about you and wanting to be with you and…” Courtney wiped a tear from her eye. “And maybe it’s stupid, and maybe you’ll never like me back, but I love you.”

“Love me?” Adore still couldn’t allow herself to believe what Courtney was saying.

“Yes!” Courtney choked back a sob, adding, “I always have. Why do you look so surprised?”

Adore shook her head in stunned disbelief.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me before?” she whispered.

“I...I did! Over and over! What...are you talking about?”

Adore stared at her, unblinking, head still shaking slowly.

“I told you I love you so many times, Adore. All the time!”

“But...I thought...you meant like best friend love. Not like...love love,” Adore said carefully, voice breaking on the last word.

“There’s no difference!” Courtney cried hoarsely.

“Of course there is!” Adore retorted, suddenly extremely irritated. “There’s a big fucking difference!”

“Dory...I have been in love with you since...I don’t know, it feels like my whole life,” Courtney said, tears sliding down her cheeks. “And you’re my best friend. So I don’t...what’s the difference?”

Adore stared at her, the wheels in her head turning, gears grinding slowly until she finally started to comprehend what Courtney was saying.

“But...you’re straight.”

“Says who?”

“You. You said you weren’t gay,” Adore told her.

“When?” Courtney challenged.

“When we were freshman! Here! That time that Muriel told you that we were being inappropriate!”

“So...four years ago, when I was fourteen, I made one comment about not wanting to label myself, and that means that I’m straight forever?” Courtney shook her head, incredulous. “That I can never grow up and figure things out about myself? Seriously?”

“But...well…” Adore faltered. She had a point. But that meant that what she said, today, might be true. Adore’s mind reeled. “So you...love me? Like...”

“Yeah,” Courtney sniffled.

“And you’ve loved me for...a long time?”

“Forever. And...I know we probably should have had this conversation before but I thought...I was so scared that with one false move, I would lose you. Because you’ve cut me off before, without a discussion, without telling me why. And now it seems like you’re trying to do it again, and I didn’t ever want to risk that happening. So…” Courtney trailed off, fresh tears pouring down her cheeks. “So if you don’t want me, just tell me. But please, please don’t hate me. I can’t bear it.”

It was so perfectly absurd. So absolutely stupid. Adore covered her mouth to smother the giggles at first, but soon she couldn’t hide it, the laughter taking over until she was bent over, tears running down her cheeks. What the fucking fuck.

“Do you wanna let me in on the joke?” Courtney asked, arms crossed. Tears trickled down her face, which wore a hurt expression, clearly not understanding why Adore was laughing and taking it quite personally.

“Yeah, no,” Adore gasped for air, still laughing as she blurted out, “I love you too, have since forever, and it’s been killing me because I thought we could never be together...Jesus, we’re both such goddamn morons-”

“Wait. You do?” Courtney’s eyes went wide.

“Uh huh, so much. How could I not? Have you met you?” Adore said.

“Well that’s…” A smile finally broke through, pulling on Courtney’s mouth until a nervous, disbelieving laugh escaped.

“So fucking dumb, I know…” Adore wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist, a few residual giggles bubbling out before she pressed her lips together, looking deep into Courtney’s eyes for the first time all night.

Courtney gazed back at her, tears still wet on her cheeks, hands on her knees, chest rising and falling rapidly. She was smiling now, a bit self-consciously, biting on her bottom lip. She hesitated for half a second longer before lunging forward, grabbing fistfuls of Adore’s hair, unleashing years of pent-up passion and anxiety into one singular, perfect kiss.

They had kissed before, over the years, but never like this. There had always been a hesitation, a caveat, one of them holding back. This time, however, it was like diving off a cliff, finally letting go.

Adore’s fingers dug into her waist, pulling her closer, finally letting herself feel everything she’d always resisted. Welcoming the prickles on her skin, the tingling up her spine, the tightness in her abdomen. It was the highest high she’d ever had, and for Adore, that was saying a lot.

It was then, as they rolled over, that the ancient beanbag chair beneath them chose to self-destruct, a seam splitting, little tiny foam spheres bursting free.

“Oh shit! The chair is-”

“Who cares,” Adore murmured, rolling her back the other way, onto the hard wooden floor, going in for another kiss, the feel of Courtney’s bare legs against hers for once not a terrifying and anxiety-provoking experience.

Courtney giggled, returning the kiss with just as much enthusiasm, capturing Adore’s bottom lip between her teeth, coaxing out a breathy whimper as Adore arched forward.

Courtney lifted her head, dizzy with happiness, cupping Adore’s perfect round cheeks. She bit her kiss-swollen lip, giggling slightly. “Your lipstick is all over your face.”

Adore rested her forehead against Courtney’s, catching her breath, and replied, “It’s all over your face, too.”

“Good.” Unable to wipe the silly grin off her face, Courtney leaned in for another kiss, hands tangling into Adore’s hair, a thigh slipping between her legs.

She rolled Adore over onto her back, the movement making more of the bean bag chair spill out. The little foam balls were all around them, blowing around in the night breeze. Courtney felt like she was inside of a snowglobe--which was somehow fitting, because the idea of this moment being forever encapsulated was exactly what she wanted the most.

“Fuck,” Adore groaned, arching up against her. “You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamed about this…”

“I probably do…” Courtney whispered. “‘Cause I have too…”

She moved her mouth to Adore’s neck, breathing in her scent as she placed a line of kisses down her throat.

“Court?”

“Yeah?”

Fingers gripped her waist, pushing her away slightly, and Courtney pulled away with a soft whimper.

“I just...think maybe we should talk about this. Before…”

“Okay.” Courtney rolled away, breathing heavily. After a few moments, she looked back at Adore. “What...do you want to talk about?”

“Well…” Adore paused. “I don’t know.”

“Do you not want to-”

“No! I mean...no, that’s not..” Adore closed her eyes, doing her best to compose herself, and Courtney took her hand, lacing their fingers together.

“There’s no rush, okay?”

Adore looked back at her, smiling slightly. “Well, we’ve already waited fucking forever.”

“Yeah…” Courtney brought Adore’s hand up to her mouth, brushing a kiss against her fingers.

“But I just, I want to know, like...what exactly is this for you? Are we gonna tell people? What do we say?”

“Well…” Courtney edged herself closer, wanting to feel Adore’s body against hers. “I definitely want to tell everyone. I want people to know how I feel about you.”

She brushed a lock of Adore’s hair away from her face, examining the solemn, almost disbelieving expression in her eyes.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” Courtney said. “Besides, everyone will see for themselves tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah? You gonna jump me as I’m getting my diploma?”

“Maybe,” Courtney said, a mischievous smile curling her lips. “Would you be mad?”

“No. Although it might give Muriel a heart attack.”

“She’s had a lot of years to get used to the idea,” Courtney said. “Remember, she’s the one who clocked my crush on you to begin with.”

“Right...when you insisted that you weren’t gay!” Adore exclaimed, suddenly sitting up.

“Well, I didn’t know what I was. I was like...just a 14-year-old who suddenly had my whole family commenting on my sexual preferences. It was weird and embarrassing.”

“Right…”

“The truth is, Dory, I still don’t really know what I am. I guess...I guess I’m bi? But you guys are always saying that’s not a thing.” Courtney looked down, wishing for the billionth time that she was certain about who she was, that there was a way to describe her experience to make people understand.

“We just say that to fuck with Fame,” Adore explained.

“It kinda seems like you believe it.”

“You know what?” Adore shook her head. “You were right all along. Labels don’t matter. Let’s just...be us.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Courtney lunged forward again, wrapping Adore into the tightest hug imaginable, face buried in her hair. They stayed that way, sandwiched together, until Courtney noticed that Adore’s hands were sliding slowly up her back, under her top, and she lifted her head to ask boldly, “Wanna take it off?”

“Okay…” Adore replied softly, almost timidly. But she made no move to do it, so Courtney began to undo the buttons herself, watching Adore’s face.

They’d seen each other undressed, of course, so many times before. But this was decidedly different, and for a second, Adore looked uncomfortable. Until Courtney stopped, leaning in for a soft kiss.

“Hey…” she whispered, lips trailing over Adore’s jaw, then grazing her ear. “We can take things slow, you know.”

“But we’ve already-”

“I know.” Courtney pulled her close. “I know, it’s been ten years. But...not really.”

Adore bit her lip, letting out a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Courtney murmured, pressing a kiss to her cheek, “We have the rest of our lives. There’s no reason to hurry.”

At that, Adore finally smiled for real, the smile that never failed to make Courtney warm inside. She turned her head, capturing Courtney’s lips in another kiss, slow and tender.

It was strange to get used to, for Adore. It had been years since she shared a bed with Courtney without that hideously painful yearning, without feeling guilty and ashamed. For her part, Courtney seemed to adjust to their new normal almost instantly, kicking off her shorts and slipping into the sleeping bag with Adore, settling beside her with a sigh.

It wasn’t all that different from how they usually slept--legs intertwined, Courtney’s head on her shoulder. But this time, the warm breath tickling her neck didn’t make her feel trapped or overwhelmed. This time, she didn’t shy away from the press of Courtney’s thighs under the flannel lining. When Courtney’s lips gently grazed the underside of her jaw, she didn’t turn away.

And when Courtney murmured, “I love you,” into her skin, it no longer made her feel hopeless and bitter.

She turned towards her, eyes shining in the moonlight, and all she wanted was for this feeling, this closeness, to last forever.

“I love you too, Court.”

She received a beaming smile in return, and an excited, exuberant kiss that soon grew heated as their legs slid against each other’s under the covers. Earlier, she’d been hesitant and a bit insecure, worried that if they moved too fast, they’d regret it. Or that they wouldn’t be on the same page. Or, worst of all, that Courtney would change her mind, realize that she didn’t really like girls after all.

But looking at her now in the still of the night, seeing her glazed eyes and shallow breathing as Adore’s fingers trailed over her skin, she knew that wouldn’t happen. She knew that whatever this thing was between them was real, and suddenly she didn’t want to wait anymore.

Adore pushed Courtney onto her back, hands sliding up from her waist, pulling open the buttons of her top. She let her eyes wander over her body, saw her nipples tighten as her fingers skated around them. Courtney bit back a whimper as Adore lowered her head and took one of those stiff nipples into her mouth.

“Fuck,” Courtney gasped out, hands tightening in her hair, a broken moan leaving her as Adore began sucking harder. Her hips rolled against Adore’s, slow at first and then faster, desperate, and Adore couldn’t resist slipping a leg between her thighs, giving her something to grind against.

The sick, guilty feeling that always plagued Adore’s fantasies was slowly dissipating, helped by how very clearly Courtney wanted this, welcoming every touch with enthusiasm and a thrilling neediness.

She continued to kiss down her body, lingering on her soft lower belly, watching her hips rise, hands still tangled in her hair turning to fists.

“This what you want?” Adore asked softly, lips brushing lower, finger trailing along the edge of her panties.

“Mmhmm…” Courtney’s hips lifted higher.

Adore spread her legs, placed a kiss just inside her knee, then up her thigh, higher and higher. She paused again, fingers hooking into her underwear, but before she could begin sliding them down, Courtney groaned, forcing herself into a sitting position and taking her by the cheeks with both hands.

“Hey.” Thumbs stroked Adore’s face. “You know that this is...I mean it’s not just about this...right?”

Adore gazed up at her, offering a sweet and hopeful smile, and nodded. “Of course.”

“I mean...it’s us. And I…” Courtney kissed her again, soft as a feather. “I want you, but only if you’re okay with it.”

“I’m more than okay,” Adore promised, nuzzling against her face. “And I want you too. I really, really do.”

Courtney placed another kiss on her forehead before flopping backwards against the one good bean bag chair they were using as a makeshift pillow.

“Well, alright then. Have at it…” She punctuated her statement with a naughty smile, and Adore couldn’t help but giggle, because it was so her.

She cast her eyes down again, slipping her fingers into the sides of her panties. The familiarity of her scent was intoxicating.

“You ready?” Adore whispered, not missing the telltale rise of her hips as the hot breath ghosted against her.

“Yes, Dory, please…” Courtney whimpered.

It was that nickname, Dory, that finally did it for Adore. Made her feel like she was in exactly the right place with exactly the right person. The person who had been there all along, loving her fiercely and deeply even when Adore had felt her most lost and lonely. It erased any doubt that they might be making a mistake, any hesitation about taking this leap into the unknown.

Adore let her eyes close for a brief second, basking in the closeness, the beauty of this moment when it was all new, when everything shimmered with possibility.

And then, she jumped.

#rpdr fanfiction #tree house kisses #scorpio #veronica #adorney #adore delano #courtney act #lesbian au #high school au #angst #fluff #smut #(sort of)

12 notes · View notes