#even learning how to google search might not help me there i get the impression its not as common
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ace attorney is NOT set in america it is set in JAPAN
#sorry this is irrelevent i just felt like i had to make this post#i was googling and it fucking pissed me off#its absolutely fucking IMPOSSIBLE to find any information about the actual unaltered canon of the games#i dont feel like having the argument about how rubbish and wrong the translation is again literally talking to myself#but i actually FUCKING HATE it#i certainly no longer play it#i still have the english only pirated versions of the later games on my phone but only cause i havent got around to finding the proper obes#another fucking nightmare pirating japanese media in japanese#even learning how to google search might not help me there i get the impression its not as common#anyway i was trying once again to figure out where its actually set#other than kanto and within view of mt fuji according to the anime#and tokyo metropolis which isnt all of kanto even though wiki says it is#?#i dont think its set in tokyo city cause in the anime it looks like a smaller city#tokyo city doesnt actually exist anymore btw its just a load of wards in tokyoto now#but its not all the prefecture#well anyway i sort of hope it isnt tokyo city tbh cause i sort of hate it#not all of tokyo metro area i like yokohama and other parts of kanagawa and im not really familiar with the rest but dont mind it#i dont even hate the suburbs of tokyo city they look the same as all the suburbs everywhere else#the city bit just pisses me off. and its so fucking overrated. and full of nutters probably. and this is where most of what you here#about japan comes from. but its actually quite a normal place if you ignore central tokyo#this is coming from someone who actually sort of likes london btw so maybe im the nutter#i mean i dont actually hate tokyo its perfectly fine even reminded me of uk or stuff cities sometimes. though not the good parts#but it just annoys me. like the concept of it#i dont even have that strong opinions on uk cities like seriously why foreign coties. well i used to actually only i dont care now#cause im an adult. but then i got bored of that and atarted to hate tokyo instead. id probably be better off just hating the uk ones#actually i still do a bit though my opinions have changed#not saying which ones though thats no ones buisness. though you might be surprised#well maybe not with what i have to say about tokyo#not sure even ace attorney could make me actually like tokyo. even though it sort of did for japan after i hated being there
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Where do you find all your neat little trinkets and such? Is it just accumulated over the years, or do you use marketplace, or antique malls, commissioning stuff? I want to add more to my home, but I don't really know where to look outside of hyper specific ebay searches.
I guess, more succinctly, how do you Find Things?
Heya! Finding cool stuff is a lot about doing just enough research. I'll show you how my mind works.
Let's say I saw this cute cat in the wild. I want to buy it, maybe see if it's something fun to collect.
If I use Google lens on the photo, I get some promising results - this is something that was mass-produced!
Let's click on a result.
I've learned something! This ceramic is called "redware" and the figure is from the 1950s. So, off to another web search.
Oh! A maker name! "Shafford." This will make future searches easier. And look - there are other related cats - it looks like as various household items! (If you further researched the original cat, you'd also learn it is a tape measure and was made in Japan.)
Now, let's say you don't have a photo to start with, or just a vague idea of something you might want. Let's hop to Facebook marketplace and see if anyone is selling cute ceramic black cats.
All of these results could go down their own research paths, but again, I'm using the example of the Shafford cats.
Armed with some knowledge, it takes just a few searches to find an impressive haul. Honestly, if that wasn't 5 hrs away from me, I'd buy that lot in a heartbeat, selling/gifting what I don't want.
For future searches, you now have two paths:
Search for things using basic terminology to find sellers who aren't super knowledgeable. So, something like "vintage kitchen cabinet". You might luck out and find a seller who just wants the thing gone, they don't know its value, and it might be a steal for you!
Search again using the specific terms you have picked up from your research. So, "jelly cabinet." This will get you in front of listing from experts, where you are likely to find a better quality item at the current market price.
That is how I found this for my kitchen, btw.
Learn the common synonyms and mispellings. Bookcase, bookshelf. Captain's desk, secretary desk.
Click on seller stores and profiles to see related items. As you research, you will start to stumble across other items and figure out your sense of taste. You will find cool shit you never knew existed. You will learn new search terms as you pick up bits of history. You will also start stumbling across online speciality sites, or local resources, like antique shops and vintage fairs. You might learn what estate sales are, or about auctions open to the public. You start developing a habit of scouting out shops and sales when you're in a new town. You put big fairs and small swap meets on your calendar. You build relationships with contemporary artists who make things you like.
My sense of style is something I've actively been refining for decades now, and it isn't just vintage tchotchkes. I do this for clothing, for the crafting I'm into, etc. Curiosity and style go hand in hand and the best part is that your eye and research chops will only improve, even if you're just window shopping.
I hope this helps!
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Good morningggg
Just got back from my psych appointment. It went pretty well. I realy like my psychiatrist. She seems like she would be fun to hang out with outside of the work area. She's always really helpful and insightful on things. She made me feel better when she told me that she didn't use her first degree. She made the comment that she was slightly checked out and going through things so she would do whatever was the easiest way out which I related to tremendously. To be fair, I was going through a lot of mental changes with the development of my schizophrenia at the time so we had very differrent things going on but I related non the less.
I think I want to go back to school. I don't know what for... I need to find something that strikes my interest. She suggested woofing which is a farming opportunity. You travel with all expenses paid for in exchange for working a few hours a day. I think I might look into it. She also thinks I would be a good peer advisor with a place like Cascadia. Options!! I'm nervous about working with people but maybe it would be good for me. Learning how to talk to people who also have mental illness who need someone to work with. I just need to become a morning person and then I would be set! lol
Still need to find a new therapist. Apparently my most recent therapist takes OHP which is awesome. It would be nice to still get to work with her. I would have to do video appointments though because she's not in the city anymore. After this post, I'm going to look into it more.
On a side note un related to mental health stuff, I'm making pizza for breakfast lol. I need to return a pair of shorts I bought for my trip to St. Croix to target but I didn't want to take the freeway so I came home and started chores instead. Decided the frozen pizza I had in the freezer sounded good. It's 11 now though, people totally eat lunch at 11.
I'm so nervous for this trip. I hope my energy and mental health hold up while meeting all of my relatives. I've been so sluggish these days. I want to make a good impression since it's probably going to be one of the only times I meet some of them. A lot of talking is about to happen and I'm sooo nervous. I havent been my normal chatty self this past year. At least I wont make weird comments about voodoo anymore. I hope that word doesn't even come up during the trip. UGH lol still recovering from that. I am still chugging along and trying to be a better person. Burned a lot of connections and what not. ANYWAY.
Going to google search some stuff now from my appointment. Hopefully I'm drawn to some of it. Who knows, maybe woofing or a job through the government will be what sparks my next adventure. Hmmmm.
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serial killer getou
Quick thanks to my friend that sent me this when I asked for inspo💖 also spoiler I changed it up…the call might be coming from inside the house if you catch my drift
My google search history is fucked too lol. Warning this contains a brief graphic description of murder. Quite a happy ending tho and gender neutral hehe :) happy halloween
It was like clockwork, every night. Coming into his shift at the 24-hour cafe, Getou scoped out the customers. When he arrived at his usual time, 8pm, there were few people right for the picking. Couples, groups of friends - never anyone alone, and if there was, they usually got to-go orders. But as the hours ticked by, his selection got better.
Lone, sleep deprived students were usually the first ones to come in at around 11pm for a quick fix as they poured over their studies. Next were the people going home from a night out, sometimes too drunk to make heads or tails of themselves or what they wanted to order. And at the crest of the lonely hours, when there was only one person in the shop, that’s when Getou would be able to make his move.
It was truly a shame the cafe didn’t have cameras, that the owners were two old grandparents who could barely work a register anymore. They should be more careful, Getou always thought as he dragged his unsuspecting victim into the backrooms. He always got them the same way, drugging their drink of choice and watching them become delusional and weak.
Sometimes, he’d have to wait and work up to taking someone, learn their patterns and see what they did. Others, he was able to move right in and take them without even a single thought. And as the heavy door would close behind him, Getou would get a rush of adrenaline unlike any other.
The knife he kept tucked in his waistband would itch him like crazy as he stood over his victims, watching as they always tried to fight through the haze in their mind to stop him from what he was about to do. Liking to switch it up, sometimes Getou would slash their clothes off before dismemberment - maybe he’d cut out their tongue and eyes before slashing their throats.
Whatever he chose to do, it was always washed away and cleaned up before morning. Taking the body with him when he left, he would deposit the pieces in different dumpsters. Never dumping at the same place twice, he would leave the police stumped as to who was actually doing these crimes.
The familiar ding of the door as someone walked in at 3:30am immediately caught Getous attention. It was a slow night tonight, not that he needed to kill someone every shift, but it was a bit unusual. Seeing you saunter in with a slightly intoxicated swing to your hips and a confident look on your face had a smirk going across Getou’s face.
“How can I help you?” He let out a smooth drawl when you got within earshot, ear twitching with excitement when you slapped your hand on the counter.
“O-one chai latte!” A little hiccup caught in your throat and you giggled at it, sliding your hand away to reveal a crisp twenty. Getou could smell a light scent of alcohol on you and grinned even more; this would be too easy.
“Isn’t this a little much for just a latte?” He teased, ringing you up. His brow quirked up when you didn’t take your change.
“Keep it! Got more where that came from!” Pulling away one side of your jacket, you revealed a band of rolled up bills bound by a few rubber bands.
“Impressive.” Getou actually was impressed. He’d only seen money held like that in TV shows. Muttering something unintelligible, you nodded and took a few steps back, checking your phone idly. Pocketing the rest of your change, Getou set to work on making your latte, putting his secret ingredient inside as well.
“Here you are.” Sliding it across the counter at you, Getou smiled with his teeth showing as you took a healthy swig.
“This is really good! Who knew it’d hit the spot so late at night?” Giving him a thumbs up, you tucked your phone away and took another sip. “Hey, is it always this dead in here?”
“At 3 in the morning? Yeah, I’d say so.”
“Right…” Nodding to yourself like you were deep in thought, you spun around in a slow circle and looked at all the decor. It was quite simple, very reminiscent of the people that owned the shop with muted colors and a lot of cushions everywhere. A few well taken care of plants dotted the space and some hand painted pictures in frames covered some empty spaces.
You and Getou made idle chit chat as you sipped your drink, talking about this and that and fluttering from topic to topic. Getou found it nice to talk to you; despite his sinister intentions, he thought you were pleasant, and maybe someone he could make it into a friend.
Oh well.
He watched you like a hawk for any subtle hints that the sedative was working. He knew the alcohol in your system would make it work much quicker and it was only a matter of time. The signs started to show before he knew it: slurred words, loosening grip on your cup and buckling knees. Walking around the counter, he put a delicate hand on your shoulder.
“Are you okay?” He asked, taking your cup and putting it down. Your eyelids fluttered as you looked up at him, and there was a no slurred into the sound you made. “Here, follow me.” Letting you lean against him, he guided you to the fated backroom. A sick smile washed over him as he opened the heavy door and let you in before he did. Flicking on the light, he stood before you with such glee his fingers shook.
“Where are we?” Leaning against a stack of sugar, you looked around, unable to focus on anything.
“Your final resting place.” Right as he untucked his knife, you completely snapped out of your stupor. Standing up straight and clearing your throat, there was an unnerving air of confidence around you that made Getou hesitate. “What’re you-”
“You’ve got no idea how long I’ve been trying to find you.” Giddily clapping your hands, you stuck one out for him to shake. “Name’s (Y/N), I’m a bit of a…” You giggled at what you were about to say. “A bit of a black widow.” The name the media gave you was so silly, you couldn’t help but find it funny.
“What the fuck.” Loosening his grip on the knife, Getou cautiously shook your hand, watching you bounce on your heels and laugh some more. “Who- what the-” This wasn’t how Getou imagined this to go at all. Looking you up and down, he wasn’t sure if this was real or he had somehow taken the drug as well.
“Don’t look so surprised! You’re not the only one that can kill people!” Playfully slapping his shoulder, you motioned to his knife. “Although, I prefer to do it a different way. Never was a fan of doing manual labor.” That made him snort and put the knife away; he never considered there’d be different classes of how to kill people.
“Yeah? How do you do it?”
“What’d you put in my drink? A few benzo’s, right?” Getou nodded, a little embarrassed he’d been found out so easily. Fishing something out of an inner pocket in your jacket, you produced a small bag of white powder. “Well this is what I use. Ketamine mostly, mixed with a few other things.”
“How do you even get that stuff?” He’d tried to get it, tried to make connections, but it proved too difficult for him. The bag you had was an impressive size, even though it was rather small. Getou’s mind raced with the possibilities of what he could do with it.
“I have my ways.” Winking at him, you tucked it back and flashed him your rolled up bills. “How d’ya think I got this?” Sharing a brief laugh, Getou opened up the backroom door, letting you out and going to sit down at a table. There wasn’t another soul in sight, the streets were starkly empty and there was a light fog in the air.
“So how many bodies do you have?” He asked as he took a seat.
“Take a look for yourself.” Pulling something up on your phone, you slid it over to him. There on the screen in big, bold letters, were the words ‘BLACK WIDOW CLAIMS 25TH VICTIM’. Seeing his brows raise made another laugh come from you, and you took your phone away briefly before showing him a set of photos.
“Woah.” Getou’s eyes were huge as he looked over them. They were all pictures of your victims, blue-gray tinge to the skin, no life in their eyes. Some were sitting naked in bathtubs, a few with half buttoned suit jackets face down on plush rugs - the amount of different scenarios was nearly overwhelming.
Sitting back in your seat, you had a smug look on your face. You showed him a few pictures of the things you’d taken as well: jewelry, clothes, designer goods and of course any cash they had. Resting his head in his palm, Getou was fascinated by you. It’s not every day you meet another killer, and one that was entertaining to boot.
“So where do I come into all of this?” Harkening back to your previous statement about trying to find him, Getou was interested in whatever plan you had up your sleeve. Instantly sitting upright in your chair, you fixed him with a deranged smile.
“Let’s partner up.” Your statement made him chuckle, but he didn’t immediately turn it down.
“How so?”
“Well, I’ve been looking to go a little further with my endeavors, if you catch my drift. A couple people have been hounding me about some silly organ trafficking business and I simply refuse to get my hands dirty.” Your face changed to one of disgust and a shiver went down your spine.
“What’s in it for me?” Leaning forward as well, the space between the two of you was dwindling.
“You get a generous cut of course! I’m nothing if not a good business partner!” You slapped a hand over your heart for emphasis. “They said if I can get them 5 bodies in a week they’ll give me 25,000 and split between the two of us…well, that’s just easy money if you ask me.”
“What if it’s not money I want?” Tilting his head, Getou watched your face change. It was true, he didn’t kill for any monetary gain; he killed because he loved it. It brought him an endorphin rush that had yet to be beat.
“If you think I’m going to sleep with you, you’ve got another thing coming.” Well, that’s not what he was expecting you to say. Getou’s hand slipped out from under him and his neck snapped up.
“What makes you think I want that!” He shouted in embarrassment, cheeks heating up a bit.
“Well what am I supposed to think?!” You cried back, laughing breathlessly. “With the face you were giving me, I didn’t know what was going on in that head!” Slapping his hands on his cheeks, Getous blush got worse at the prospect he might have been giving you sex eyes.
“I was just messing around!”
“Good! Cause as hot as you are, we just met! What if you’re some serial killer?” Laughing at your own joke, you laughed even more when Getou started to chuckle.
“That’s true, you’ve got to be careful of strangers.” Finally feeling his face cool down, Getou looked at you again. “Speaking of serial killers, how’d you find out about me?” He always worked alone and made sure to cover every square inch of his tracks. There wasn’t a single thing Getou left to chance.
“When body parts start to appear out of thin air, people get to talking. No one knew it was you, it’s all speculation out there, but if you know who to talk to you can find out anything. For instance, I was able to find out what the victims had in their stomachs before they died and went around a shit ton of coffee shops.”
“Is that how you knew I used benzo’s?”
“Mhmm! I was able to build up quite a tolerance too.” Having a police toxicologist wrapped around your finger certainly helped the matter. They were able to tell you a lot of other things, but you didn’t want to bore him with the details.
“So, when do we start?” Getou was eager to learn more, get more involved in this underground network.
“Enthusiastic, I like it.” Picking up your phone, you handed it to him. “Gimme your number and we’ll make something happen.” You didn’t have to tell him twice. Quickly punching in his number, Getou watched you take your phone back and put it into your pocket. Standing up slowly, you stretched and let out a soft groan.
“Leaving so soon?” Was it desperate to admit that he didn’t want you to leave?
“I’m tired!” Taking a quick glance at the clock, Getou saw it was pushing 4:15am. “I have to get home and take a shower, maybe stop by 7-11.” Following your lead, Getou stood up as well and walked you to the door.
“Get home safe, I hear there’s a serial killer running loose.” A proud smile spread across his face as Getou got you to laugh.
“Oh of course, thank you for the concern.” Stopping right before you stepped out, you turned over your shoulder to look at him. “I’ll give you a call later, probably around 2? And we can work out all the details then. Maybe grab lunch somewhere that won’t try to kill me.” Giving him a brief wave, you stepped out onto the street. “Have a good night, Suguru.”
“You too.” Waving you off, he walked back behind the counter, recounting the interactions you had. Riding on a high, something caught his attention that alarmed him greatly. He’d put his name in your phone as Getou, and that’s what it said on his nametag as well. “How’d they know my name is Suguru?”
#jujutsu kaisen#geto x reader#geto suguru#jujutsu kaisen imagines#jujutsu kaisen fanfic#jujutsu kaisen scenarios
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23. “Why’s it smell like smoke?” Kaidou-centric | reader isn't as involved, just a known character in the story | not establish relationship
Kaidou begs Nendo and the guys to help him cook something to make a bento to impress the reader, saiki tags along to ensure you dont get food posioning, ("Y/N won't get food poisioning ! And If she does it would be the work of the Dark Reunion!!",,,"right,")
Just a bunch of kicthen mishaps and At the end Kaidou is dejected cause all the food is burnt and underseasoned, about to give up, You show up (Saiki ended up telepathically asking you to show up at his house) and you think its sweet he tried so hard, so you say smyhing like "clearly yiu were possesed by the Dark reunion! And they made you forget you're super good cooking skills!"
"Huh?? Yeah?!! Thats right!!!"
"But no worries Kaidou! Because I promise you I will teach you how to cook and you shall relearn your skills and take the Dark reunion down!!"
("I thought the Dark Reunion were trying to destroy the world, not destroy opposing culinary masters?"-Saiki, visual imagine: Gordon ramsey esc bg w/ 2 teams red and blue and saiki innyhe middle of the shot, contemplating)
Aa srry for rambling I really love the idea of doing bits like these xdd
Anyway, you agree to help him learn- Ah- uh Relearn how to cook,
-💙
“Why’s it smell like smoke” x Kaidou Shun
YES! I’m not sure which ones were canonically bad chefs because I know somewheres in a cooking episode someone sticks a fork in the microwave(I know a simple google search will tell me and by the time I finish writing this I will have searched it). Also don’t feel bad for rambling I think it’s so interesting to read what someone wants in specifics, because it gives me things to work with though their are aspects to both specific and non specific requests that are nice, well Anyways I head cannon majority of my favorite characters to be either Gorden Ramsey gourmet chefs or like a disaster in the kitchen so here’s the little writing...
⚠️Mentions of burning down a house while inside(no one actually does it’s referred to when Kaidou uses an open flame stove though) Nendou burns his arm on the stove minorly not bad at all like a touch⚠️
“Listen buddy, I don’t think this is a good idea…” Nendou says patting Kaidou’s back practically knocking Kaidou’s soul out of his body.
“No, no, no! It’s the best idea I’ve ever had!” Kaidou shouts while flailing his arms around.
Nendou although reluctantly agrees.
Before they can get to far into their plan Saiki is right along side them asking what they think their doing seven though he knows good and well Kaidou wants to make you a bento box, that would result in Kaidou’s house catching on fire, or something, maybe you’d get food poisoning.
“Oh I want to make (Y/n) a bento!” Kaidou says smiling brightly at Saiki a drastic difference between Kaidou’s normal on edge about dark reunion behavior and his behavior when he spoke or even thought about you.
“Why do you want to help?” Kaidou asks hopefully as he sort of doubts Nendou’s cooking skills.
“Not really, but you might give them food poisoning if I don’t…” Saiki murmurs telepathically.
“They won’t get food poisoning!” Kaidou whines “and if they did it would be the work of dark reunion”
“Right…” Saiki says nodding his head.
“What ever come on we’re out of ingredients at home!” Kaidou says leading the three of them away from the school building and to whatever market Kaidou desired.
Around an hour in to Kaidou and Nendou trying to work a rice pot they quite and decide they might get further if they try to cook the rice on the stove which is a horrible idea, that they are able get away with as Saiki stepped out of the room to use the restroom.
Ag the most Saiki may have been gone for ten minutes! Ten minutes was all it took for Nendou and Kaidou to make about fifty mistakes, first they put two different pits of water boiling one to cook rice and the other to make macaroni.
Ok, Saiki thinks to himself, not an ounce of salt in either pots of water for the macaroni and their is a perfectly good rice pot sitting across from Nendou unplugged.
“Why wouldn’t you use the rice pot?” Saiki asks motioning towards the pot.
“It’s broken!” Kaidou huffs.
“Tried plugging it in?” Saiki plugs the rice pot in and it beeps alerting them of the heat it was about to put off as it warmed itself.
Both Nendou and Kaidou lower their gazes to the floor fumbling with their fingers as Saiki scoffs disappointedly.
“Saiki buddy, we’re out of milk do you mind?” Nendou asks and Saiki simply nods before walking out the house but not before telling you that you should probably go and see what their doing before Kaidou burns down his whole house with them inside.
Immediately after Saiki leaves Nendou burns himself on the flames of the stove. So of course Kaidou being the good host runs to get the first aid kit and in the process burns the rice he forgot to take off the flame, and suddenly the cheese packet for the macaroni is melting onto the stove as well.
It’s a mess both Kaidou and Nendou are panicking, theirs boiled water spilling over the pot, it stinks Nendou’s holding his burnt hand while Kaidou chases him with the first aid kit because Nendou is running from the water that continuesly just boiling over and dripping onto the floor, at some point Kaidou begins to just give up and prey his mom comes home soon, and when his front door is opened he thinks that maybe just maybe his prayers were answered.
They weren’t it was Saiki back with the milk, how face palms at the absolute mess the two made of the kitchen.
Almost as soon as the problem began it’s over and cleaned as the two sit in the living room waiting for Saiki to call them back in.
He calls them back in and lets Kaidou package the burnt food that tastes nasty and under seasoned and he now understands what he meant by saying he would tag along to prevent food poisoning.
All Kaidou wants to do is curl into a hall and cry, he just wants to impress you, because everyone else seems to think his child like nature is rather lame so he feels the need to impress you, he quickly ushers the other boys out of his house and curls onto the couch as he cries over the burnt food that would never impress you.
Eventually you arrive and knock softly on Kaidou’s door.
He drags his feet over to the door opening it to see you smiling at him, quickly he wipes his tears trying to hide the pink tint the tears left.
“We’re you crying?” You ask worriedly as you walk in cupping his face in your hands, if he wasn’t flushed already he would be now as you look at his glossy eyes.
He quickly shakes his head and you let out a sigh of relief, “Saiki told me that you had…” you pause trying to think of something. “Needed help cooking for someone…”
He looks at you wide eyed like a deer in headlights.
“He told you?” He whispers looking a little mortified.
“He did, but that’s ok, I’m here to help!” You say giving him a sweet smile and he nods defeatedly realizing his plan failed horrible.
“Why don’t you explain to me what happened?” You ask as he leads you into the kitchen.
“I uhmmm…” he stalls before mumbling the rest.
“What?” You also confused.
“I wanted to impress you, but I don’t do anything cool, so I thought if I made you a bento box you’d think I’m cool.” He says hiding his face in his arms.
“Oh Kaidou.” You hum “I always think you’re cool, and I think that it’s really sweet of you to try and cook for me” you reassure but seeing as he was still hiding it didn’t really work.
“I bet it wasn’t even your fault, it’s probably dark reunion possessing you.” At that his head shoots up and he’s responsive again.
“You’re right it burnt because of them” he shouts.
“Tell you what why don’t I help you cook this time?” He nods quickly accepting any time he can get to spend with you, and that’s how the two of you spend the weekend, ‘teaching’ Kaidou who really isn’t a horrible chef how to cook.
#reader insert#x reader#tdlosk x gn!reader#tdlosk x reader#tdlosk kaidou#tdlosk#kaidou shun#kaidou x reader#kaidou shun x reader#Kaidou Shun x gn!reader#💙~anon#anons
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BnHA Chapter 301: All My Todorokis
Previously on BnHA: We learned that when a bunch of superpowered villains are suddenly set loose with nobody around to stop them, things get fucked pretty quickly. Old Man Samurai and a bunch of other useless people decided to make “I pretend I do not see it” their new mantra, and resigned. Endeavor had a moment of despair on account of being crushed by the guilt of having ruined the lives of himself, his family, and basically everyone else in the entire world. For various reasons the heretical notion of “person who has done bad things feels sorry for doing them” sent fandom spiraling into a meltdown, so that was fun. The chapter ended with the entire Todoroki clan descending upon Enji’s hospital room to have a dramatic chat about Touya and All That General Fuckery.
Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “here’s the story of how Baby Touya slowly went insane trying to win his father’s love.” It’s a tale full of subverted expectations and heartbreaking inevitability, and also like twenty panels of the cutest fucking kids who ever existed on planet earth, who are so fucking cute that I can’t stop thinking about their cuteness even with all of the horrifying family tragedy unfolding around them. It is absolutely ridiculous how cute they are. Touya is out here pushing his tiny body past its limits because he inherited the same obsession as his dad and neither of them can put it aside even though it’s destroying them, and yet all I can think about is Baby Shouto’s (。・o・。) face. Anyways what a chapter.
so I have to confess that even though I managed to avoid being caught off-guard by the early leaks, the number of people reblogging my Endeavor posts from earlier this week and using the tag “bnha 301” kind of gave me an inkling that this chapter will include more Tododrama lol. that said, I don’t know anything else about it, so we’re still good spoiler-wise
AHHHHH FLAHSBAKC AHHHH. omg I know I typoed the shit out of that, but I’m just going to leave it lol I think it’s fitting
holy shit holy fuck. so this is Rei and Enji’s first meeting, then??
yepppp, oh shit
so wait, I know this is not even the slightest bit important, but are they meeting at Enji’s home or Rei’s? because I always figured that Enji was the one with the super-Japanese aesthetic, but maybe that was Rei’s side of the family all along
(ETA: from what I found during my very brief google search, omiai meetings are often held at fancy hotels or restaurants, so maybe that’s what this is.)
there’s such a period drama feel to this setting. like it’s so outrageously formal fff how can anyone stand this kind of atmosphere though seriously
OH THANK GOD
I mean they’re still stiff af but at least they’re not rigidly sitting in seiza and staring at each other unblinkingly anymore lol. Enji’s actually got his hands in his pockets now. why is this somehow almost cute
oh damn it’s the flowers
Rei seems so subdued and it’s so hard to get any idea of what she’s actually thinking. I want to see her side of this dammit
but anyway, so at least from Enji’s perspective it seems like even though the marriage was arranged and he picked her because of her quirk, he still loved his wife and wanted to do right by her. the fact that he was watching her and noticed that she liked the flowers, and remembered that detail for all these years -- there’s a reason why Horikoshi’s showing us this. we know what’s going to happen later on; we know how much fear and violence and breaking of trust is coming up ahead, and while it may seem like this scene is serving to soften Enji’s character further -- which to be fair it is -- it also helps drive home the full impact of his abuse. that it’s so terrible not only because of the trauma of the abuse itself, but also because of the way it retroactively destroys all of the good things as well. this could have potentially been such a sweet scene, but it’s inescapably tainted by the knowledge of what’s to come, at least for me. and that’s just brutal
anyways, shit. is the whole chapter going to be like this?? feel free to toss in something I can actually make a joke about sometime, Horikoshi
oop, back to the present
omfg lol
“are you all right” “NO I’M NOT ALL RIGHT WHAT THE FUCK.” “oh, right, because of all the stuff that’s happened with me abusing you and you having a mental breakdown and being hospitalized for ten years and then our son coming back to life and killing thirty people, right, right. I almost forgot.” whoops
omfg you guys I’m loving this new and improved steely-eyed Rei. I’m loving her a lot
and what do you mean “part one” fkjds how long is this going to be. TOO MUCH DRAMA FOR ONE CHAPTER TO HANDLE
oh, hello
yeah I’ll say you did. didn’t seem to bother you much at the time, though
HMMMMMMMMMMMM
Dabi Is A Noumu intensifies even further. anyways though would you fucking look at this boy lounging on this moth-eaten couch doing his best DRAW ME LIKE YOUR FRENCH GIRLS impression wtf
Dabi what if you actually had killed him??? what would you feel?? satisfaction?? regret?? anything at all?? tell me your secrets goddammit
who are you talking to buddy
Fuyumi-chan, Natsu-kun (is it common for brothers to address each other as -kun?? can’t recall seeing that in many other anime, but hey), and “dot dot dot,,,,,, SHOUTO” lol thank you so much for this bountiful heaping of Tododrama Horikoshi we are blessed
AH, WHAT DID I SAY THE OTHER DAY
ULTIMATE MELODRAMATIC THEATER CHILD. “I’M JUST GOING TO LIE ON THIS COUCH SHIRTLESS AND ALONE AND MAKE SPEECHES TO MY FAMILY MEMBERS WHO AREN’T THERE AND SAY THINGS LIKE ‘WATCH ME IN THE PITS OF HELL’ WITH A STRAIGHT FACE BECAUSE NO ONE’S THERE TO JUDGE ME.” WELL JOKE’S ON YOU MISTER CHATTERBOX BECAUSE I AM IN FACT JUDGING THE SHIT OUT OF YOU LOL
(ETA: and on a more serious note, it’s interesting to see that “look at me”/”watch me” theme being used again though, because we see that same sentiment uttered repeatedly by the younger Touya in the flashback. well kid, you definitely got your wish at last. don’t know what else to say.)
OKAY HORIKOSHI HAS DECIDED THAT’S ENOUGH FUN, TIME FOR MORE FLASHBACKS
oh my sweet precious lord
just as cute as we left him. giving us a child this cute when we all know full well what’s going to happen to him is just unspeakably cruel though
HOMG
I’m fucking speechless. you broke me, congratulations. what am I even supposed to do with this
I can’t get over this. moving forward my life will be split into two distinct parts, B.P. (Before the Pout) and A.P. (After the Pout)
and meanwhile there’s ALL THIS BACKGROUND ANGST BUILDING UP, AND I CAN’T EVEN FOCUS ON IT. Touya’s arm and cheek are covered in bandages (I’m guessing this is shortly after that “ouch!” panel we got some chapters back), and Enji is deliberately avoiding training with him because he doesn’t want him to hurt himself further. I can’t fucking get over the irony that all this time everyone thought Touya had died because Enji pushed him too far in his training, and it turns out that it’s the opposite -- the tragedy ultimately happened because he didn’t want to push him. but I’m jumping ahead of myself though I guess
by the way,
remember this?? just wanted to remind you that it exists just in case you forgot
so now someone is talking and basically saying that Touya is the exact opposite of what Enji was hoping for when he decided to start playing with quirk genetics
-- okay hold up
...lol no, never mind. for a second I thought “holy shit he looks kind of familiar WHAT IF IT’S UJIKO OMG” before I remembered that Enji would have recognized him during the hospital capture mission if that was the case. so NEVER MIND, PROCEED
IMAGINE THAT, ENJI DOESN’T QUITE SEEM SATISFIED WITH THIS SUGGESTION OF QUITTING NOW
(ETA: how the fuck did this man go around saving 62 towns in a single day what even is All Might.)
[clicks tongue several times] trouble a’brewin’
MEANWHILE BABY TOUYA HAS UNFORTUNATELY INHERITED HIS DAD’S STUBBORN STREAK
KLDIHWOEIJFL:KSDJ
!!!!!!!!!!!
oh my god. oh my god. what is this chapter. WHAT IS IT
so now Touya is all “YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND MY MANLY DESIRE TO BURN MYSELF ALIVE” well you got her there champ
THEY’RE TOO CUTE. OH MY GOD. HIS FURIOUS LITTLE TEARS. HER CHUBBY LIL FACE. HIS STUBBY LIL FISTS. SOMEONE HELP ME
also are they just home alone lol or what. “hey Touya, you’re what, like six now?? do us a favor and look after your baby sister for a couple hours for us would you? make sure not to set yourself on fire or anything.” WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!!
now it’s nighttime and Enji and Rei are arguing, presumably about his decision not to train Touya anymore
whew. okay. so, a couple of things here
1. first of all I think this conclusively shows that Enji really was trying to do the best he could for Touya. he stopped training him as soon as he realized it was hurting him, but Touya was still determined so he tried to make it work anyway, and even visited doctors to try and figure out if there was anything they could do. then, once they were absolutely sure that it wasn’t going to work, he tried multiple times to explain to Touya why they had to stop. he didn’t just abandon him out of the blue, which is really important to note. “no matter how much I tried telling him...”
so yeah, that debunks another common fandom accusation. so by the time he finally makes this decision, which we all know is going to turn out horribly, it’s basically because he’s already tried everything else he could think of. which, by the way, still doesn’t mean he handled this right. but at the very least he was taking Touya’s feelings into account and he was trying, and he didn’t just abruptly toss his son aside (at least not yet)
2. buuuut, then there’s this panel right below all that
which is the other side of it. if he’d just quit like the doctor person advised him to, that would have been the end of it. Touya would still have been upset, but he would have eventually gotten over it and the family would have moved on and possibly even been happy. but what happens next happens because Enji can’t let go. he still has this maddening urge to surpass All Might, and so he and Rei keep having more children, and then Shouto is born, and Enji finally has a kid he can start projecting all of his hysterical ambitions onto once again, and everything starts spiraling out of control soon after
though p.s. none of that is Shouto’s fault though!! he’s one of the few good things to come out of this whole mess and I’m very happy that he exists. the tragedy is that his dad fucking lost his mind over his quirk and fucked everything up. but that’s on him, not Touya or Shouto
anyways, SLKFJLSHGLKJL
I CAN’T FUCKING TAKE THIS YOU GUYS??? LOOK AT THAT LIL BUTTON OF A NOSE??? I’M LOSING IT HERE???
AND TOUYA JUST SEEMS DEVASTATED OMG
because children aren’t stupid, after all. he understands that his dad is still looking to surpass All Might. and so he feels like a failure, and feels like his dad is trying to replace him because he wasn’t good enough. and even now, isn’t that what the adult Touya is trying to prove?? that he was good enough after all?? “I’ll show you what happens when you give up on me, dad”?? “I’ll show you what I can do”?? fuck my life fuck everything
AND YOU CAN SEE THE TOLL THAT IT’S ALL TAKING ON REI GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AS WELL OH GOD
really nice touch here with the panel outlines becoming all shimmery from the heat of Endeavor’s flames (and/or becoming more unstable as the family gets closer and closer to their breaking point). but man, Horikoshi I can’t handle this, please show us more cute kids or something I can’t
GKELKWFJLDKSHFLKL
WITTLE BABE. BEEB. BUBS. SMOL. lkj; oh ouch a piece of my heart just detached and latched onto him huh look at that
TODOROKI “I’M SO SMALL AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT’S GOING ON AND I DIDN’T ASK TO BE HERE” SHOUTO AHHHHH
crazy how they all just seem to know right off the bat lol. kid doesn’t even have object permanence yet, let alone a quirk. but do they care?? IT’S THE HAIR, RIGHT. WE’RE ALL THINKING IT, I’M JUST GONNA COME OUT AND SAY IT. they knew the minute they looked at him lol
AND MEANWHILE TOUYA IS OFF HAVING UNSUPERVISED TRAINING/CRYING SESSIONS IN THE MOUNTAINS OR WHATEVER, AND, UH OH
are those blue flames yet?? they seem pretty close
(ETA: this is one of the few cases where the manga being in black and white is infuriating lol.)
OH MY GOD AND STILL
so it’s not like he was so disinterested that he didn’t notice what was happening, and he was still trying to stop it and get through to him. trying to reassure him that it wasn’t the end of the world and there were other things he could do with his life, but this one particular thing just wasn’t going to happen
fucking hell. it’s agonizing seeing how close they actually were to fixing it. if he’d only said the right words, or if he’d realized at this point how destructive his obsession could be to his kids, and backed off from putting that same pressure on Shouto. we came so close to possibly having a happy ending
AND ALSO THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING BUT PLEASE LOOK AT HOW TOUYA IS LIKE THREE AND A HALF FEET TALL AND HIS DAD IS LIKE NINE AND A HALF FEET. Touya barely comes past his knees flkjlkg. the Todoroki household must have been so filled with like plastic stepstools to reach the bathroom sink and all the little baby toothbrushes, and baby gates to keep the kiddos out of the important grown-up rooms and stuff. and also days-old half-empty cups of water and stale crackers and hot wheels and my little ponies strewn everywhere
“BUT EVERYONE AT SCHOOL SAYS THEY’RE GONNA BE HEROES” a wild Deku parallel appears?? how bout that
I know this is like a pivotal moment in the Todo Tragedy and all, but fucking look at this lil dumpling
“sup bro, it’s me, the manifestation of your fears of inadequacy and lack of fatherly affections. a GAAA. ba-baAA-baa [gurgling baby sounds]”
OHHHHH IT’S THE SOUND OF MY HEART BREAKING OH NO
HE WANTS TO BE LIKE YOU ENJI. good lord somebody please just get this family some therapy
“DAD YOU IGNITED IT IN ME” flkjslkj nope, nope. not ready for this pain here
baby Shouto, would you like to weigh in on this affair? “DA!! ba-ga-daaa, [pacifier chewing noises]” oh my, you don’t say. so insightful for one so young
OH MY GODDDDDD
IT’S SO DRAMATIC BUT ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT ARE THE SHOUNEN WOOSH LINES SURROUNDING FOUR-MONTH-OLD SHOUTO LOL HE WAS LIKE THIS FROM BIRTH OH MY GOD I AM DYING HELP
SHOUTO YOU’RE RUINING THIS ENTIRE CHAPTER!?!?!
“yo, the fuck kind of family was I fucking born into” oh, son. if you only knew. IF YOU ONLY KNEW!!
(ETA: lmao I got so distracted by the ridiculous cuteness that I glossed over the fact that Baby Touya seems to possibly be aiming at him?? it’s hard to tell because he’s also super out of it from heatstroke and may just be losing control in his attempt to show off his upgrade.)
ANYWAY THAT’S THE END EXCEPT WHAT’S THIS LAST LINE OMG
ffffff. and we’re in for ANOTHER chapter of this next week?? MORE drama?? MORE BABIES?? MORE OF EIGHT-YEAR-OLD TOUYA’S SLOW DESCENT INTO MADNESS. MY HEART CAN’T TAKE IT, BUT ALSO YES PLEASE SIGN ME UP
#bnha 301#dabi#todoroki touya#endeavor#todoroki enji#todoroki rei#todoroki shouto#todoroki fuyumi#todoroki natsuo#bnha#boku no hero academia#bnha spoilers#mha spoilers#bnha manga spoilers#makeste reads bnha
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boyfriend!bakugou headcannons
before dating
- will start noticing you only after you either,,
A) do something intentionally heroic
B) do something incredibly stubborn/borderline reckless to save someone
-there is no room in his big boy ego brain for anyone who doesn’t possess hero qualities,, soz thats just the way it is
-thats not to say he would only date someone from the hero course tho,, he would 100% take interest in someone from any course
-as long as they’re as dedicated to helping others and giving their 100% to everything they do,, he’d be happy
-would watch you for a long time but would be incredibly obvious about it. he’d try and hide it and be sneaky, but everyone knows. even you.
-when he finally asks you out, there was not a single plan involved. he just saw you alone and decided to man up about it on a whim
-that being said- after he does ask you out, he immeadiately panics about what to do on your first date. que frantic google searching-
top searches from that night include
how do cool guys dress
how to stop blushing
first date ideas that arent romantic
why am i sweating so much
-first date is an utter disaster by traditional standards
-he takes you somewhere with an athletic aspect- like minigolf or laser tag. he pays for you but immeadiately follows it up with “you better actually play and don’t just make me waste my money! its not gonna be fun kicking your ass unless you try, got it?”
-you have fun and can’t stop smiling- but not bc lil katsuki is charming you.
-no, you’re smiling bc he’s embarrassing himself at every turn trying to impress you. at first it’s a little off-putting, but then you realize just how much he cares and it’s kinda cute
-cute in the a dog-chasing-it’s-tail-until-it-gets-dizzy-and-falls-over kinda cute; but adorable nonetheless
-bakugou walks away from the date thinking he crushed it. just absolutely blew it out of the water,, there’s no doubt in his mind even though there 100% should be
early relationship
-incredibly touchy,, but not in like traditional or “cute” ways
-prior to you, bakugou’s only significant feeling was pure rage,, so needless to say he doesn’t know how to handle his sudden urge to touch you all the time
-he’s super nervous about it and doesn’t know if it’s suddenly okay hug and touch you as much as he wants to,, so he resorts to less traditional means of skinship
-so he’ll flick your forehead when you smile just right at him. he’ll pinch your cheeks when you talk too much. he’ll drop his hand flat and heavy over yours while you’re writing,, just so the pencil skitters across the page and you yell at him.
-he’ll push you over. not like a hard shove or anything,, but if he sees you sitting on the ground or squatting, he’ll just sort of push you over??? especially if you’re standing up from a chair,,
-ofc he catches you before you can fall or anything, but really he just uses “saving” you as an excuse to touch you
-he’ll push at you, catch you, and then smirk at you with “god, you’re so clumsy. i won’t always be around to save your sorry ass, you know.”
-it’s annoying so you just push him away and glare, but unfortunately for you, that’s what he wanted the whole time bc he’s a little shit
-that being said,, he’s still suprisingly sweet in even weirder ways
-bakugou’ll make you food. but he’ll never be around when you eat it,, you’ve tried before to eat the meals he cooks for you right after he cooks them, but he gets too embarrassed and finds an excuse to leave right when you’re about to eat the first bite
-he’ll tease you. a lot. about everything. but nobody else can tease you,, if somebody’s embarrassing you, bakugou will either threaten them until they stop talking or make a scene until nobody is paying attention to you anymore
-he’ll leave you little notes. most of them just have little doodles on them with reminders about homework or training, but they’re cute nonetheless
-when he takes you out on dates his hands always crackle when he first sees you. you’ve come to learn that the more dressed up you are, the more his palms will crackle
-normally you have to be the one to initiate any sort of romantic contact,, pls just kiss him already he’s almost always thinking about it but cant find the courage to do so
-when he does kiss or hug you on his own accord,, don’t say anything. he’ll pull away super quick and get all red!!!
established relationship
- suuuper clingy
-, not in the sense that he’s constantly phyiscally all over you,, he just won’t go anywhere with the class if you’re staying back, or will just follow you around the whole day if he’s got nothing else to do
-like,, if the bakusquad is looking for him they’re honestly just better off looking for you since he’s never far behind
-strangely enough, bakugou’s pretty quiet?? if he’s comfortable around you, he’ll stop being so prideful and picking so many arguments.
-his whole badass front at school wears him out,, so if katsuki comes to hang out with you after a long school day he’ll probably want to sit and just listen to you talk
-is a whole ass cat when it comes to physical affection. he normally acts indifferent entirely, but when he wants attention he wants attention
-might as well just drop everything you’re doing since he’s gonna throw you on the bed and just lay directly on top of you until you stop fighting him
-pet his hair super softly and tell him he’s strong and that you’re proud of him pls,, katsuki will cry
-formal dates happen less often now, but you see him more,,, in fact, you’re almost never without him. when he’s not doing school or studying or training katsuki is always where you are
-he’s pretty possessive and jealous- not just of like other guys, but literally anything that’s getting your attention. see examples 1 & 2
1.) ooo new book that has you super enthralled??? soz, it’s not just your book anymore. katsuki sits you on his lap and tells you that the only way he’s gonna let you continue to “waste your time on something so stupid” is if you read it out loud to him
2.) omg you got a new puppy that you’re just enamoured with?? tough, it’s bakugou’s puppy now too,, and he never lets it leave his side so the only way you’re gonna get to cuddle with the puppy is if you cuddle with bakugou too
-he’s super proud of you so he’ll introduce you as his s/o to everyone he meets,,, and if the person he’s talking to also has an s/o??? good lord katsuki would never shut tf up about how much better and stronger and cooler you two were than the other couple
-is not embarrassed about pda. at all. if everyone already knows you’re together than there’s nothing to hide,, he thinks that since he put in all the work to get you to love him than he should be able to reap the rewards,, anywhere. at anytime.
-that being said, he does find showing affection in front of others to be v v embarassing!!! so to combat that he turns it up to 11 and flirts and flusters you so bad so that all the 1A guys just think he’s super cool and manly with u instead of soft
-that being said, the second you guys are alone it’s like a switch has been flipped and you could fluster him only by batting your eyes just right
-insists you ‘cook’ with him. katsuki doesn’t let you do much but like cut up vegetables or stir, but he likes to listen to you talk while he does everything else
-generally pretty touch starved but only really indulges if you make the first move. like, he won’t ever tell you to come sit with him on the couch, but if you sit down?? then immeadiately he’s pulling you into his side and doesn’t let you up until he’s ready to get up as well
-still pokes and flicks and shoves you. also now feels comfortable enough to prank you. he thinks you’re adorable when you get mad enough to yell at him so prepare to be mad a lot.
-tells you he loves you damn near constantly. he wont say it first tho bc ~tsundere~ but after you admitted it first, he’ll say it. and once you know??? then he’s gonna make sure it’s known,,, blasty baby doesnt do anything half-assed esp not something as important as showing his love
-he likes to pick out your clothes for you bc otherwise you’ll walk about looking too cute and its a problem bc he never figured out how to get his hands to stop crackling
-will call you dumbass, idiot, moron, halfwit, klutz, etc in public but in private it’s usually princess or little brat or very rarely baby
#katuski bakugou#mha katsuki#bakugou x y/n#bakugou katsuki#bakugou headcanons#bakugou hcs#bnha#my hero x reader#my hero academia#mha#mha bakugou
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Might I ask about 'Life Preserver'? I have no idea what it could mean, and that makes me very curious👀
This is my pre-S1 JonGerry AU! They meet while Jon’s still in school and Gerry’s on the hunt for a Leitner. It’s part of a trilogy in my head that includes JonGerryMartin later on, but Life Preserver takes place before Jon becomes the Archivist and is just JonGerry.
Here’s a scene from it!
---
“Thanks for meeting me,” Georgie said, by way of greeting.
Gerry shrugged. “‘S fine. What’s the occasion?”
It was a nice day. The cafe was bustling but not overcrowded. Georgie had insisted on dragging him to the one empty table outside, with the nice view of the street and the park on the other side. Gerry had eaten lunch in far worse places, with far worse company.
Shit, were they friends? Had he missed that somehow? Not that Georgie wasn’t nice enough, but he’d always figured she was more invested in Jon than in him. That was how it worked, wasn’t it? He wasn’t sure if being friends with your boyfriend’s ex was a thing you were supposed to do, and at this point he was too afraid to ask.
“Why does there have to be an occasion?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe I just wanted a lunch partner.”
“Didn’t think you liked me that much,” Gerry said bluntly. Maybe that was harsh��she’d only given him a little bit of stink eye when they first met, and she’d let up pretty quick.
If Georgie was bothered by it, she didn’t show it. “I worry about Jon sometimes,” she said. “He’s not always the best at… at advocating for himself, I guess.”
“Yeah, I’ve gathered.” For someone as prickly as Jon, he was shit at actually standing up for himself where it counted.
“Worried a lot about you, at first,” Georgie went on, clasping her hands around her coffee cup. “But I decided not to prod too much. I didn’t want to be one of those exes, you know?”
“Yeah,” Gerry lied.
“Figured it wasn’t my business anyway,” she said, pausing to take another sip. “Jon and I hadn’t talked in over a year by the time I met you.”
“Right.”
“You know, I didn’t even learn your full name?” she said. “Not til last week. Weird, isn’t it?”
Gerry paused with his cup halfway to his mouth. “I… guess?”
“And you know, it stuck in my mind for the longest time,” she said. “Could’ve sworn I heard it somewhere. So I did a quick Google search.”
Slowly, Gerry put his cup back down. Georgie continued to sip demurely at her own.
“Thought I’d find a Facebook page with a few friends in common,” she said. “Or a LinkedIn or something. So you can imagine how surprised I was.”
Gerry looked around at the cafe’s full outdoor seating area, and the crowded, public street beyond. Plenty of witnesses, in broad daylight.
“Ah,” he said.
“Yeah.”
Besides a slight lift of the eyebrows, Georgie’s expression barely changed. Gerry stared down at his cup, appetite gone. Around them, passersby remained happily oblivious.
“I didn’t do it,” he said after a moment. “The charges were dropped and everything.”
“On a technicality.” Georgie’s eyes were cold and steady when they settled on him. “Contaminated evidence, according to one of the news articles.”
“Look, I don’t know what you expect me to say,” Gerry bit out.
“I don’t know either, Gerry, but what am I supposed to think?” Neither of their voices rose above the dull roar of the street and the hum of conversation around them, but Gerry still felt like he was being shouted at. “Does Jon know about this?”
“No, and if I have my way, he won’t.”
Georgie’s steely gaze turned to a glare. “And you don’t see the red flags that might raise? That you might’ve—”
A tide of red rose up behind his eyes. Not anger, but the memory of blood, both the sight and the overpowering smell. “She did it to herself,” Gerry said coldly.
“Not what the coroner’s report said—”
“What do you want from me?” Gerry went on harshly. “I came home and found her halfway through—that. Went into shock long enough for her to get plenty of it on me, then ran out to the nearest coffeeshop and sat in a fog until the police picked me up. Happy?” Georgie’s glare only hardened. “It really doesn’t matter what you think. It’s the truth whether or not you believe it.”
She waited for him to wrest himself back to something resembling calm before speaking again. “Fine. Let’s say I believe you. Why are you lying to Jon, then?”
“Oh, tell me what the best time to bring that up is,” Gerry said dryly. “Is that a fourth date conversation, or more of an anniversary thing?”
“I’m not talking about the murder,” Georgie retorted. “Why did you tell him you’re living with your mother?”
He probably could have come up with a feasible lie. But what came out instead was, “Because I am.”
The look on Georgie’s face was viciously unimpressed. “You’re living with your mum.”
“Yep.”
“Your mum, who by your own admission, committed a violent suicide in 2008.”
“Got it in one.”
“If you’re not even going to take this seriously,” Georgie began.
“Would you like to meet her?” Gerry asked. “It’s not like it’d be the first time you saw a corpse get up and walk around, would it?”
Georgie froze.
That was the funny thing about saying cruel things, Gerry reflected. More often than not, you had to say them out loud first to realize they were cruel at all.
But it was out, and he couldn’t swallow it back down, so he let it sit there between them, bloating like a dead thing in the sun. He didn’t look at Georgie’s face again. He wasn’t sure he could.
“What did you just say to me?” Georgie said shakily.
“I don’t want to say it again,” said Gerry. “And I don’t think you do, either.”
“That’s…” She sat back in her chair, putting just a bit more distance between them. Gerry shut his eyes. “How—how could you possibly know about that?”
Gerry heaved a sigh, running his hand down his face. He could always stop. He could get up right now and walk away. Never talk to her again, never see her again. Of course, if he did that, it’d probably mean never seeing Jon again, either.
Not for the first time, he wondered if that wasn’t a good thing.
“When you live like I do,” he said at last. “You learn to see it. Recognize it—them. The marks on people. Like the one on you.”
It was subtle, as the End always was. It never looked like a proper scar, the way the more violent ones did. After all, what was more natural than death itself?
“I’m… marked,” Georgie said. It wasn’t a question.
“Kind of impressive, to be honest,” he said. “Dodging Terminus. Not many can say they’ve done that.”
“Stop.” Her hands went to her ears quickly, almost instinctively, before she forced them down again. “Just, stop for a second.”
“Okay.”
Georgie sat and breathed for a moment. Then, “So your mother—” She paused again, gathering herself. “She… she was like that woman in the medical sciences building.”
“Dunno,” Gerry replied, forcing himself to look at her again. “I can see the scar, not what left it. And what my mum did was… unique.”
Her eyes were still fixed on the table in front of her, not on him. “Is this common?” she asked.
“Walking corpses, specifically?” Gerry asked. “Or did you mean more generally?” She nodded once. “Guess so. It’s been common enough to take over my life.” He watched her carefully, waiting for a sign that he should stop again. “There are forces behind the monsters. Powerful. Omnipresent, even. Most people are lucky enough not to notice, or be noticed. Some are lucky like you, and escape with only a scar. Others—” The Eye dropped a helpful bit of trivia in his head. “Others are like your friend.” She flinched. “Sorry.”
She sat and breathed for a little while longer. Gerry picked up his coffee cup again and waited.
“And what about you?” she asked at last. “Where do you fall?”
Gerry grimaced. “Long story. Very unpleasant.”
“Broad strokes, then.”
“Mum grew up seeing the monsters and decided it’d be nice if she could be one herself,” he said. “Then she thought it’d be even nicer to start a little monster dynasty, and that’s where I came in.”
At last, Georgie lifted her chin and looked him in the eye again. “And what about you?” she asked. “What do you want?” Her jaw shifted as it clenched. “What do you want with Jon?”
“I’m not going to hurt him,” he said quietly.
“That’s not what I asked.” Georgie’s eyes hardened again. “You know what I thought, when I first met you? I thought you were just—toying with him. Because I saw how he looked at you and how you looked at him, and it didn’t match. Like he was just—just a diversion for you. Just some passing curiosity until you got bored and moved on.”
Gerry slipped his hand off the table and into his lap. It was a bit late, she’d probably already seen it shaking, but it made him feel better, at least.
“Was I right?” Georgie asked. “It makes sense, even if it’s not the same as what I first thought. Growing up like that, I bet you’re curious. Is that what Jon is, to you? A way to play at being—”
“Human?” It came out harsher than he meant it to.
“I was going to say normal,” Georgie replied, glancing away for a moment. “But if these—monsters are as common as you say they are…”
“Look, you’re not wrong, alright?” Gerry sat back in his chair, letting his spine curve into an ugly slouch. “That’s how it started. He asked, and I was curious, so I went along with it.”
“And now?” she pressed.
“And now I want to keep it,” he said. “I want to keep him. I’m finally starting to like the world outside of the one I grew up in, probably because I finally have a reason to be here. Happy?”
“No,” Georgie said flatly.
Gerry tipped his head back with a groan. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to acknowledge what this sounds like!” Georgie glared at him, sitting up straight enough to look down at him. “What you’re making it sound like! So you grew up in a bad place—fine. I can’t imagine what that’s like. But then—what, you meet a nice guy and now you’re ready to leave it all behind and defy your undead mum and turn to the light side, just like that? That is not how it works, Gerry. It’s not as simple as that in this world, much less yours. You don’t just fall in love and fix everything, and it’s not fair to put that on Jon—”
Gerry barked out a laugh. “Is that what you took from this?” he demanded, dragging himself back up to face her. “You think I need you to tell me that—that love doesn’t conquer all, and I can’t pack all my baggage away and skip into the sunset because a cute boy asked me on a date and showed me the error of my family’s ways? Fuck you.”
Georgie held his gaze, unflinching. “Fine,” she said. “How should I have taken it, then?”
“I’ve wanted out since I was old enough to want anything.” The words came as if ripped from him, raw and bloody-tasting on his tongue. “You think I’ve never tried to leave before? But where’s someone like me supposed to go, hm? Even if I didn’t have monsters in my head and her ready to drag me back if I don’t come on my own, what place is there for me to run to?”
She didn’t flinch or look away again, even with Gerry a breath away from yelling in her face. Instead she watched him without so much as a twitch of an eyelid, leeching the venom from him with steady, infuriating calm.
“It’s like this,” he said. “Like I’m on a—a ship, sinking in a storm. I know if I stay on it, it’ll take me down with it, but what choice do I have? I could jump, but it would only drown me faster.” He swallowed, struggling against the dryness in his throat. “And I can see, just off the deck, all the boats that don’t have room for me, and all the people drowning in the ocean, and all I can do is stay where I am and throw life preservers until I join them.” His eyes burned. “But then I met Jon, and suddenly it’s like I have…” He gestured vaguely, struggling with his own analogy.
“A safe harbor,” Georgie said quietly.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t think there is one. Not from this. Not from them.” He shrugged, feeling inordinately tired. “But for the first time, I feel like—like if I jump, someone will throw me a line.”
In the space that followed, the hum of surrounding conversations washed back in between them. Gerry was almost surprised to see them still there. Apparently he hadn’t gotten loud enough to scare anyone off.
“Well?” he said, when Georgie’s silence got to him.
“It’s a lot to take in,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“And I’m still worried about Jon.” She lifted her eyes to meet his again. “But, I’m less worried about your intentions than I was before.”
“Guess that’s something,” he answered, and heaved a sigh. “So what happens now? Gonna demand I come clean with him?”
“No,” she said, faster than he would have expected. “No, I… I never told him about mine. And, just on instinct… I don’t think I’d ever want him dragged into this, if it’s avoidable.”
She didn’t know, Gerry realized. She’d known him years longer than he did, and she didn’t know he came scarred by the Spider.
“Is he in danger?” she asked. “Being with you?”
“No,” Gerry said firmly. “I wouldn’t—no. I keep him as far away from my shitty life as I can. I told him I didn’t want him anywhere near my family, and he didn’t press the issue.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “He thinks your mum’s a homophobe, you know.”
That shocked a laugh out of him. “You know, he’s probably right? Think she might just hate the idea of love in general, though.”
“Messy divorce, I take it,” Georgie said dryly.
“Rohypnol and garden shears were involved, so yeah, I’d say it was pretty messy.” He realized his mistake when the sickened look crossed her face. “Sorry.”
“It’s… fine,” she said. “Probably should’ve guessed.”
They sat in silence again, but the climate of it had shifted. It felt easier, somehow. Less like he half-expected the fog of the Lonely to come rolling in for a snack. Gerry remembered his coffee, and found it just on the edge of lukewarm. He drank it anyway.
Georgie shot him one last odd look, then took out her phone. She scrolled through it for a minute or so, then snagged a paper napkin and pulled a ballpoint pen from somewhere to scribble on it.
“Here,” she said, sliding it over. Gerry looked down to find a line of neat blue numbers. “That’s the number of the therapist I talked to after—what happened to me.” She looked at him briefly, saw the dubious look on his face, and shrugged at him. “Just in case you need another lifeline.”
It was strange—usually Jon was the one to make funny things happen in his chest. This one didn’t feel the same, but he still didn’t quite know what to do with it. It left him feeling uncomfortably like he owed her something.
“I won’t let any of it hurt him,” he said, because he had nothing else to offer. “I’ll end it myself before I put him in danger.”
She nodded, though she didn’t look as relieved about it as he’d hoped. “That’s good,” she said hesitantly. “Don’t be a martyr, either. You—you deserve help. You deserve a chance to get out. You know that, right?”
He tried to smile, but it felt more like baring his teeth in fear. “Don’t think I really know what anyone deserves.”
Georgie reached across the space between them, telegraphing her movements in case he wanted to pull away. He didn’t, even as her hand settled on top of his. “I’m rooting for you, alright?” she said firmly, as if she’d just decided it then and there. “Jon’s… he’s happy with you, you know?”
“Fuck if I know why,” he forced out.
“Stop that.” She gave his hand a quick squeeze. “I changed my mind about you, before. I can tell he makes you happy, too.”
His throat felt tight. “Yeah.”
“Fuck if I know why.”
“Oh, piss off.”
He palmed the napkin while she was busy laughing at him. For a moment he eyed the nearest bin, judging the distance and his chances of making it without her noticing. The moment passed, and instead he folded it carefully around the numbers and slipped it into his pocket to throw out later.
He never did.
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Human Relations Snippet: Tim teaches Jon the internet and odious goats are sacrificed to the cult of Bezos
There’s no reason for this to exist. I was rereading a bit of HR and I saw a throwaway joke about Jon wanting to buy Martin a Portal Gun. I started wondering about how that would even work. The answer is, obviously, a 200 year old man squinting at a computer screen wondering why there’s so many horny singles in his area. I get possessed by demons easily, so I took three hours out of writing my daemon au and wrote this instead. Bon Appetit.
(Edit, quick clarification: I think that Jon would refuse to use the name for the Beholding that Smirke made up, and although all of this exists in my head and you guys don’t know this, there was a lot of tension between Jon and Jonah’s ‘circle’. So Jon hated Smirke and thought he was a hack. He uses Smirke’s terms to others sometimes for ease of understanding or in deference to Jonah (:/) but I think that mentally he mainly calls the Beholding his own name, The Witness. It rings of that personal and intimate connection Jon and the Beholding has. Anyway, onto the story.)
After one hour in anguished uncertainty, fifty popups that advised Jon of very many ‘hot singles in his area’, six separate sites that Jon’s God had to inform him were covers for thieves that stole money from you, and a very confusing retreat to Jon’s favorite internet page ‘Wikipedia’ as to what an Amazon was, Jon had given up.
Normally this was where he asked one of his personal assistants for help. Normally, he wouldn’t even be trying, and he would have just told one of them to do it. This was how Jon had cunningly mostly avoided using computers for the past twenty years. Some endeavors were unavoidable, and Jon was proud to say that he mastered email in 2010. Or was it 2008? He liked to think it was 2006, but it was possible...never mind. If it was important, the Witness would tell him.
After one hour in anguished uncertainty, fifty popups that advised Jon of very many ‘hot singles in his area’, six separate sites that Jon’s God had to inform him were covers for thieves that stole money from you, and a very confusing retreat to Jon’s favorite internet page ‘Wikipedia’ as to what an Amazon was, Jon had given up.
Normally this was where he asked one of his personal assistants for help. Normally, he wouldn’t even be trying, and he would have just told one of them to do it. This was how Jon had cunningly mostly avoided using computers for the past twenty years. Some endeavors were unavoidable, and Jon was proud to say that he mastered email in 2010. Or was it 2008? He liked to think it was 2006, but it was possible...never mind. If it was important, the Witness would tell him.
Peter Lukas was right on almost nothing, Jon thought disgruntledly as he slammed his laptop shut - including in his taste of men, company, philosophies, men, patron deities, professions, and men - but he was right in his proclamation that the internet was the degradation of society. Not that he hadn’t sacrificed his morality and sold out, feeding his patron through something called “incel forums” and “Reddit”. Between him, Jonah’s “Excel spreadsheets” and “TurboTax”, and Annabelle Cane’s ridiculous “MMO guilds”, the Society was filling with computer geeks. Jon could always read the wind: he had to keep up, and quickly.
Besides, Martin had kindly educated him on how it was almost unheard of for a young man like Jon to not understand how to work that Goggle thing. Giggle? Martin was very streetwise and was one of the most insightful people Jon had ever known, he was definitely right.
Which is why he had to buy him this “Portal Gun” that he wanted. He had even shown Jon the website! And if Jon was in desperate times trying to navigate these confusing webpages entirely with URLs he memorized, then he would take desperate measures!
“I’m going down to the Archives,” Jon said, slithering off the couch and clutching his laptop to chest. Jonah had bought it for him. He appeared surprised that Jon was using it. “I may not be back for a while. I need...a book.”
Jonah didn’t look away from his own infernal machine. It seemed he was on that ‘Excel’ program again. Was it one of those ‘video games’ he kept hearing about? “Do I want to know what you were doing on that laptop.”
“Reading Wikipedia,” Jon said immediately, and somewhat defensively. Jon had discovered Wikipedia in 2001 before promptly funding it and throwing his weight behind its development. He had spent a solid five years convinced a computer was a kind of electronic screen that let you read digital Encyclopedia pages, like in Star Trek. He’d seen Star Trek. Georgie made him. “Did you know that -”
“Yes, yes, have fun. Haven’t you read that entire site already?”
“Not even,” Jon said defensively. “I can’t just sit and read through entire Encyclopedias anymore, Jonah. We know more things now.”
“What a way to describe the last two hundred years,” Jonah said, not even looking away from his computer. “We know more things. Never change, Jon.”
“You’re the one who never changes,” Jon grumbled. But it was a weak comeback, and considering his brand new delightfully short stature somewhat untrue, so Jon breezed out of Jonah’s office with full knowledge that he’d think of a better comeback halfway down the steps to the Archives.
In fact, it wasn’t until he was at the door, and by then he felt stupid for losing a point against Jonah anyway. He easily opened the door, stepping inside and quickly bee-lining for Sasha’s office. Her burgeoning powers were wonderfully flowing in the shape of access to and understanding of technology. He had never seen such gratuitous breeches of privacy as she casually committed. Every day Jon was validated in his decision to save her from the Stranger. A balance, an equal yet opposite Archivist from Jon, would be invaluable. Not that Jonah and Jon weren’t their own yin and yang, but Jonah’s powers were paltry and out-of-date. Mind reading and spying through iconography was so 1960. They needed fresh blood.
Sasha had been a wonderful choice, and Jon didn’t regret choosing her to act as saviour. Most of the time. Some of the time she -
“She’s not in.”
Jon’s fist halted in front of the door, about to sharply rap on her office door. He turned around to actually look through the bullpen, only to see that Timothy was sitting in his chair chewing a sandwich. Somehow angrily. Definitely suspiciously.
“Are you sure?” Jon asked dubiously. “Because you’ve lied about this before.”
“Because you should stop coming down here and bothering her.” Timothy balled the saran wrap in his hand and dunked it in the trash can, somehow undoubtedly giving the impression that he wished it was Jon’s head. “Just bugger off.”
Someone was in a snit. Normally Timothy wasn’t this hostile. Jon had thought that learning his name might make him less mean, but it did little to help. But when Jon looked around he didn’t see Martin, and a quick check assured him that both Sasha and Martin were having lunch at their favorite deli and engaging in that plotting hobby they both enjoyed. Timothy had elected to stay behind, stewing in his own angry and paranoid juices.
He would have to do this with Martin out of the Archives...and he really wanted to take care of this now so Martin would get it before the weekend...and it wasn’t as if Jon was scared of this boy he was one hundred and seventy years older than…
“Uh,” Jon said intelligently, “can you help me with...something…”
Timothy’s face twisted in a novel combination of surprise and disgust. “What,” he sneered, “your evil fear god or whatever can’t figure it out for you?”
“I don’t need others to think for me,” Jon said stiffly. It was something he’d had to say far too many times. “The Witness is less helpful with...troubleshooting...look, do you know how to work a computer?”
Timothy stared at him blankly. “Like, at all?”
“I’m trying to buy Martin this toy he desires,” Jon said desperately. Fuck it all, he walked over and sat down in the chair next to Tim’s desk. He pulled a little bit closer, placing his laptop on Tim’s desk, and ignored the way the other man leaned away. “But whenever I try I keep on seeing alerts about hot singles. I’m not interested in young women, I just need to buy a ‘Portal Gun’. Do you know what a Portal Gun is?”
Timothy continued staring at him, eyebrows raised. Clearly involuntarily, so quick that he may not even have noticed, one corner of his lips was ticking upwards into a smile.
“How many credit card scams have you fallen for?”
“Absolutely none,” Jon said, very quickly. He pulled out his credit card, placing it on the table. He knew a credit card was involved, although he didn’t know how. “What do I do? Do I swipe it? Is there a port?” He picked up the laptop and squinted at its sides, looking for a port. “I wanted to ask Sasha for help, since she’s the expert in hacking, but surely you know the basics?”
“I mean...I can’t, like, code, but yeah, I can work Amazon.” Timothy carefully opened the laptop, watching the display light up. He effortlessly navigated to an icon on the screen, clicking it open.
“That’s not right,” Jon said urgently. “You’re supposed to press the E.”
“I do not want to know how many toolbars you have,” Timothy said bluntly. “We’re using Chrome. That’s another way to look at the Internet.” He rubbed his hands together. “Yeah, I got a grandmother, we can do this.”
Jon perked up. “So you’ll help?”
Went unsaid: even though you hate me?
“Whatever,” Timothy grumbled. Jon decided not to press his luck.
Jon decided that he liked the Chrome better than the Internet Explorer, because it was simpler and Google was on the first page. Tim rapidly typed on ‘Amazon.com’ into the search bar and easily scrolled through the very busy and picture filled page that immediately popped up. Why was everything so fast? Maybe this was why the young people had no attention span: these pages just came up immediately. No flipping for indices for finding anything in phone books.
“Right. What was it, a Portal Gun? Like from the game?”
“A board game?”
“Video game.”
“Like on a VHS…?”
“Right.” Tim pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know, Sasha said that you’re one of the most famous sociologists and anthropologists in British history.”
“I am extremely intelligent, Timothy, and I won’t abide any insinuation otherwise,” Jon said curtly. “I cannot be expected to keep constant track every time there’s another - iPhone or whatever. You have teenagers in your family, correct? Do you always know what they’re talking about? That’s, what, a twenty year age gap? Multiply that by ten.”
That shut him up. Timothy sighed again, much more aggressively, but he clicked the white bar and typed in ‘portal gun’ anyway. “Right. Not fucking apologizing, but right. I still don’t fucking know what ‘Twitch’ is.”
“It’s a brief spasmodic contraction of the muscle fibers,” Jon said helpfully. “Fascinatingly, this phenomenon was first observed in frog’s legs before I was even born in 1780, by Luigi Galvani. Erudite man, by the way, but he couldn’t hold his liquor. It was the birth of the study of bioelectricity, although the exact mechanism of muscle contraction eluded scientists for years.”
“Never mind.” Timothy sighed again, the perfect mix of aggravated and long-suffering. It seemed to be the man’s two favorite emotions. “My grandmother has a PhD and she still can’t figure out her cell, either. We had to get her a Jitterbug.”
Amazon, as Timothy explained, was a kind of shopping mall, except you could pick out what you wanted by its picture and have the shopping mall pack it up and send it to you. Jon didn’t quite understand why people preferred this to just going to a shop yourself, seeing as you could get it immediately instead of with a three or four day turnaround, but Tim explained that Amazon was cheaper, had a wider selection, and didn’t make you get off the couch.
“Oh,” Jon said, finally getting it, “this follows the economic model of large scale businesses underpricing their products to undercut smaller businesses in the area, driving them out of business until they hold monopoly over the market and can raise their prices without worrying about staying competitive.”
Timothy stared at him.
“I mean,” he said, “I guess?”
“This explains why my Alexa project was successful so quickly,” Jon mused. “With a lack of competition or alternatives, consumers are more likely to accept the dramatic invasions of privacy as normal. Normalizing intrusions into privacy took ages, but my early efforts paid off very well. The Ring doorbell was even better, along with the line of security and home protection systems. We’re now working on live streamed 24/7 surveillance to social media platforms.”
Timothy stared at him further.
Finally, he said, “Alexa was...you?”
“Of course,” Jon said, baffled. Who else would it be? “I gave Jeff the idea and convinced him it would be profitable. I didn’t understand the whole mechanics of it, but once I gave Jeff a vision from the Witness he was eager to implement the divinely inspired spyware.”
Timothy continued to stare.
“The evil fear god controls Jeff Bezos.”
“He thinks I’m a prophet, actually,” Jon said helpfully. “I let him become Cardinal of the imaginary cult in exchange for funding some of my more esoteric programs. Had him sacrifice a goat and everything, it was great.” At Timothy’s alarmed look, Jon was quick to elaborate, “It was the most evil goat you’ve met in your life. Morally odious.”
“...for my sanity I’m going to pretend that you said none of that.”
In retrospect, although Timothy had worked at the Institute for a few years, it did take quite a bit of time to acclimate to the fact that the Avatars permanently shaped the shape of human existence in order to better feed their gods. Jon knew better than anyone: when humanity made gods, and gods made man, and man made gods...the feedback loop could self-perpetuate for years. Eternity, if needed.
But they had no luck on ‘Amazon’. With Jon’s eidetic memory he was able to easily pick out the one that looked most similar to the one that Martin had showed him, but all of the little toy guns were for someone named ‘Rick’. Then Timothy took twenty laborious minutes explaining the entire plot of ‘Rick & Morty’ to him, which Jon patiently sat through.
“I think young people today deeply enjoy explaining media,” Jon said, once Timothy finished telling him the funny jokes. “I’m very interested in your interests, Timothy.”
“You are so fucking condescending. And please call me Tim, you’re sounding even more like my grandmother.” When Jon brightened, Tim - Tim! - quickly said, “This does not mean we are friends.”
Granted, Jon had never once in his life gave a shit about making friends, but he felt as if he should be making more of an effort with Tim. He was a sort of supernatural brother in law, wasn’t he? Although Sasha perhaps Sasha was more of a favored niece. At least, he would be, if today’s generation found some morality and stopped living in sin.
Good lord. Now he was sounding like Jonah. Georgie used to joke that he was born in the wrong generation - he should have been born a 17th century Puritan instead. Jon found it a very funny joke. Jonah did not.
“Are there any other shopping websites?” Jon asked finally, after Amazon failed them. He’d have to call up Jeff later and complain. “Or is this the only one?”
Tim sighed. “Let’s check Google.”
Quickly and efficiently, yet with many lightning fast detours, Tim found another site called ‘eBay’ - pronounced ‘e-Bay’, not ‘ehbay’ - that listed off exactly what they needed. They weren’t under the toy section, instead listed as something called ‘cosplay’, but Tim seemed highly resistant to explaining that one, so he dropped it.
They picked a likely looking white toy gun that looked the most similar to the one that Martin had liked and Tim talked Jon through punching in the numbers on his card into the website and sorting through the billing and shipping information. Tim helpfully took down the numbers on his card to file later.
“And...done!” Tim said, pressing a button and leaning back. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“It was ten times as complicated as I thought it would be,” Jon assured him, “but also much more fun. What else can you buy online?”
“Oh, god. What can’t you buy.”
Jon brightened. “Can you buy books?”
“Old Gertrude used to buy Leitners on eBay,” Tim said dully, “so yeah, sure, why not.”
Jon stared at his computer. He carefully navigated the mouse to the big red x and clicked out of the internet browser. “That’s enough of eBay, then, I think.”
Guess he would have to stick to buying Leitners in person. It was no good buying fucked up books from sketchy sources. Always stick to people you trusted, or at least trusted to be themselves. Mikaele was Jon’s favorite supplier since the kid Leitner disappeared, and they had a pleasant working relationship. Mikaele shared his grandfather’s stories about the history and culture of the Maori, and Jon told him which of his haunted artifacts would be the most helpful in the imminent apocalypse.
“Well,” Tim said finally, gently pushing Jon’s laptop away, “that was...something, great bonding session with my local supervillain, please run back to Elias and bother him instead.”
“You were very helpful, Mr. Stoker,” Jon said, as professionally yet paternally as possible. Tim was six years older than his body, so he’s not sure how it came off, but the touch of grey at his temples helped with the dignified air. “And as soon as you start acting like a man and propose to my Archivist, you’ll make an excellent brother in law -”
“Uh, excuse me?”
Jon spun around in his chair to see Sasha and Martin standing at the door, holding doggy bags and looking somewhat flummoxed. Probably confused at the sight of him and Tim having a civil conversation, which admittedly had never happened before. Possibly also confused at how completely mortified Tim looked.
“Who said anything about proposing?” Sasha asked incredulously. “Tim, are you -”
“No! No, god no!” Tim stood up quickly, holding his hands out as if he was placating a raging bull. “Nobody’s been saying anything - I would never do that to you -”
“Oh,” Sasha said frostily, crossing her arms and letting the bags swing, “would you.”
That was a domestic Jon should stay out of, even though he definitely caused it. He and Martin sidled away in tandem, huddling near the back of the Archives as Tim frantically pled for his life.
Sneakily, Jon glanced at Martin out of the corner of his eye. He looked happy. Happy, and just as stressed as he always looked - Jon had never known Martin when he wasn’t constantly stressed out, and he was more than aware that it was his fault.
He looked good, too. Really nice, broad jawline that gave his face a friendly round shape. Just friendly and round in general, it was really handsome. His hair was as nicely short and ruffles as ever. The big glasses were super stylish, and really framed his face well. Really big, broad hands. Jon, who had always been so poky and tall and thin and gaunt, like some kind of haunted scarecrow that lurked through the corners of time, was envious. He wanted some of that softness and gentleness. Really, he wanted some of Martin’s -
“So what were you and Tim doing?” Martin asked. “I didn’t know you knew he existed.”
“You told me his name,” Jon said anxiously. “I don’t forget the things you tell me, you know.”
Martin smiled shyly and him, and Jon found himself smiling back. “It’s pretty good for my ego to hear that I have something to teach the immortal genius.”
“I don’t know,” Jon said, as Sasha yelled in the background, “I’ve been learning a lot lately.”
“Really?” Martin teased. “Anything interesting?”
“Oh,” Jon said, watching the yellow fluorescent light cast Martin’s dim smile in soft relief, “I can think of a few things.”
#my writing#jonathan sims#tim stoker#archivist!sasha#martin blackwood#sasha james#mild homosexual activity and massive old man activity inbound#tma#the magnus archives#tma fanfic#the magnus archives fanfic#im posting this at an awkward time so prep for a lot of self rbs
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SEASON 2, EPISODE 5 - GET SCHWIFTY
I've been rewatching the show for my own reasons (fic research!) and S2EP5 (Get Schwifty) feels a bit different given what we learned in S5EP8 (Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort). Just some general thoughts about it, searching for evidence or overlaps.
"What's that? Who's that baby?" -- Morty
Morty seeing the baby version of himself being held by younger Rick. This implies Bird Person's Rick met (a version of) Morty as a baby, which may not be the Morty we know nor the one that Bird Person is speaking to.
This is further evidence that Rick returned to a family that was abandoned by Rick for twenty years, and that he potentially lost his original family. That was suggested by Memory Rick, who may have been younger -- but as a Memory, his knowledge would probably include a little more loose information, not an exact day or time.
Because for BP's Rick to have held Morty, he'd have to have at least had Beth and Beth would have had to have had Summer. So that sort of suggests that if Beth died, it would have been post-Morty.
"Morty, suppose you could retrieve your family from Earth but had to abandon Rick. I could give your loved ones shelter on Birdworld, even jobs, possibly as worm ranchers. How often do you think you might look up at the stars and wonder what might have been had you just put your faith in Rick?" -- Bird Person
Is this Bird Person speaking from experience? It wouldn't surprise me if he thought back on his choice to stay in his universe and fight rather than going to a world where the war with the Galactic Federation never even happened.
Unrelated to BP and Morty, there's also this conversation that I think relates to Rick and his family in general. Not directly, but as a thematic mirror to what Rick's been going through in the series.
"We've been waiting 16 years for our daughter to respect us, but the key is, it has to be our daughter, not this person she's become." -- Beth
I feel like this is a reflection of one of the show's core concepts; the fact that Rick can go between universes and everything and nothing matters, being attached to your actions and your true timeline contrasts with the infinite possibilities.
(I firmly believe that Rick has gotten to the point where his actions are his own and that he has to own his mistakes because that's what makes him who he is. If he started jumping between worlds on a whim because things got messy, he'd stop being himself and be some wish fulfilment detached from any true reality... And that's a weirdly dehumanizing thought, as we are our consequences as much as we are our actions.)
I do think this all builds up the case that the Rick we know isn't the 'original' Rick, of when we met him,. He's likely a Rick who lost his family sometime after Beth had Morty, then skirted around the universe self-soothing and coping. Then something triggered his return to his family, just in a different universe.
I think his universe goggles are part of that -- small side note, Rick asks Morty to wear a backpack when he's using the goggles, but doesn't make the others wear the backpack when they're browsing in S1E8 -- so I think the backpack helps the search by INCLUDING that person into his search, like adding additional terms in a Google search. Rick could have left that Morty in the Cronenberg universe but made sure to take him. So he could have saved himself and left Morty in that Cronenberg universe, but didn't.
(Also weird because he just... abandons Beth, Jerry and Summer without even trying to bring them along, so clue what the fuck to do with that.)
This harkens back to S1E8 where Rick gives them goggles to be able to see alternate versions of themselves -- he had to have MADE those goggles, likely to see where he'd want to move to originally, then as the backup in Rick Potion #9/the C-137 universe jump.
Rick: [walking to the cupboard] Hey, do we have any wafer cookies? [grabs cookie box. eats cookies and starts walking away] Mm! [stops and looks back at Jerry, Summer and Beth] Oh, boy. Looks like you guys have been checking out alternate lives and realizing you don't have it as good, huh? That's too bad. You know, me and Morty are having a blast, We just discovered a show called "Ball Fondlers". I mean, I don't want to rub it in or anything, but you guys clearly backed the wrong conceptual horse. [eats another cookie, walking offscreen]
Additional note, whenever we see wafer cookies are mentioned, we get Rick backstory. Or it feels that way at least. But the nod towards backing the 'wrong conceptual horse' gives me the impression that Rick has done that himself, plenty of times. There's no way he didn't check in on other versions of himself, or seek out other versions of his family just to keep tabs.
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started reallyyy late this month so unfortunately this list is quite short again :/ however, i still had a great time reading this month and read a lot of lovely fics!! hopefully i’ll be able to read and write more during the summer :)
below the cut (because i’ve finally learned how to use it, yay!!), you’ll find a list of the fics i’ve read, re-read, and any fics i’ve published this month. i’ve included the word count, rating, and summary of each fic, but please remember to read all the tags and warnings of each fic!
happy reading!!
read
•° — stuck on you by @writewhatiwant22 33.9k | E | sticker collector louis
Louis’ life revolves around his stickers. Harry’s life revolves around his job. The universe has decided their worlds should revolve around each other.
note: this one was so so beautifully written!! the first part teared me up a bit but this fic was so heartwarming... i loved how soft and cute louis was and how harry slowly grew and learned to accept louis
•° — thinking about the t-shirt you sleep in by @absoloutenonsense 52.4k | E | abo
Harry's alpha fraternity donates to a local thrift shop (because of Liam's latent crush on a cute beta in his lecture). Louis' financial situation (and confusing omega instincts) lead him to make some interesting fashion purchases. Lots of pizza, feelings, and not-really-lying.
note: i really enjoyed the characterization and the premise of the story, and the pining was so so good!!
•° — time will tell, I suppose, or at least, these pages will. by griezmannxo 5.1k | G | childhood pen pals
Harry has a diary and he's been writing about the pen-pal he's never met in there since he's been 12 years old. One day he reads his diary out to a room full of strangers and finds that the man with the blue-eyes at the back of the room is a slight distraction.
(Or Harry goes to a public diary reading thing at his local coffee shop and gets more than he bargained for)
note: this was so funny and sweet and really really touching, made me cry a little. i really loved the premise of this!!
•° — my husband (29/M) died and has been possessed by a demon and now he’s cooking eggs in my kitchen as if nothing happened, what do I do? by @liamloveslarry 4.3k | M | possessed harry
note: this was so fascinating and funny and creepy at the same time... i loved it!! definitely not the usual type of fic i’d read but i was really impressed by this one as well as the premise of the story.
•° — after jay by pinkpoppunk 2.7k | NR | modern au (includes the pandemic)
Harry wants to go to the pub with his husband and his friends, but Louis doesn't seem too keen on the idea of leaving home just yet.
Or: the one where there's a pandemic and Louis is a writer.
note: this was pretty short, but really lovely; the emotions hit hard and this got me quite emotional
•° — just perfect, baby by larryinpanties 3.6k | M | teacher au
"Hi.”
"Um, hi.”
"Hello?"
"Um, books.”
"Yes, we are in a library.”
Harry can’t help it that he completely embarrasses himself the first time he spoke to Louis. Louis finds it endearing.
note: another shorter fic but this one was really sweet and adorable!!
•° — your sins, my vices by jennifer_kaid 12.5k | E | abo
Harry's eyes landed on him; a little omega, pure and innocent, looking like his wildest fantasy. Yet there was an edge to the young man. An instinct telling him that the omega was different, not someone who would walk a step behind him and follow him blindly.
"Stop staring at me like a creep," the omega snapped.
•••
Louis hates soulmates. Harry has waited his whole life for one.
note: i always love a good dark harry fic!!
•° — stranger on the shore by thecellardoor 2.9k | T | fallen angel harry
His smile had a wicked edge. He sat up Indian-style and shuffled closer, as if he was sharing a private joke and Louis understood the punchline. “I’m a fallen angel.”
Lonely and far away from home, Louis meets a stranger who may or may not be more than he seems. Aka a fic in which Harry is a fallen angel who gets too close to a human.
note: okay... wow. i’ll admit it took me a bit of time to fully process and understand this, but once i did... whoa. this was amazing, but a warning: this is a sad ending fic with mcd in it, so this might not be everyone’s cup of tea
•° — fine line by bananaheathen 5.1k | T | singer harry
In which Harry's a rising star musician, and Louis is a bartender who doesn't date the talent.
Or, the one where they try to just be friends.
Louis lets out a high, loud laugh, and Harry could probably fall in love with him in a couple of hours, but he definitely won’t. Friends is great. He can do friends.
note: this was really sweet and funny and cute and i adored the banter in this fic!! plus how smitten harry was for louis and how louis was trying to not fall in love with harry was just so adorable <3
re-read
•° — all of an eternity* by ss98 7.7k | M | styles triplets *since this fic was deleted, this link leads to a pdf on google drive
Prompt Fill: The Styles triplets rule the world and Louis is their baby.
note: i've been searching for this fic for over a year (i'm not even kidding) after the author deleted it, so i was so so SO happy to finally find it!! i love this one, and love the fact that the usual styles triplets dynamic was switched up a little so that marcel is actually the tough one.
•° — consequences by @allwaswell16 78.5k | E | amnesia au
Two years ago Harry let his powerful family come between him and the love of his life, something he deeply regrets. Louis has tried to move on from their devastating break up. Sometimes, he even thinks he has. It only takes one moment to freeze them back in time.
An amnesia au
note: this is one of my all-time favorites!! so well-written, it’s angsty and heart wrenching and so sweet at the same time, just so incredible and definitely a fic i always come back to :)
•° — enter the rose garden by @angelichl 10.3k | G | abo
Soft heats make omega Louis clingy. Enter alpha Harry.
note: i read this one a long time ago but recently saw it pop up on my dash again so i re-read it and i really really loved it!! it was so sweet and warm and tender and so SOFT.
my own fics
•° — chapter thirty eight and thirty nine of love me, please? wip, 123k | G | highschool au
harry is the popular boy at school, loved by everyone and enjoying his life. louis is the quiet, shy but unbelievably gorgeous boy who makes a certain curly boy fall deeply in love with him. the only problem is, they've never talked before. so what happens when a frog crushes on a hedgehog?
aka a larry stylinson highschool au
#28th appreciation#fic rec#my fic rec#april rec#april 2021 rec#larry fanfic#fic recs#fic list#*#2021 recs#sched
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How I learn Japanese words in context (技術、腕、スキル...?)
Recently, I put a bunch of Japanese text into Google Translate. Within this text was the phrase 「感動する」, which ended up being translated as “be impressed”. At this point, I know just enough Japanese to feel like the translation was off.
I think 「感動する」is more like “I was moved” or “it was touching”. 「感動する」is what I feel listening to an emotional ballad or watching an inspiring movie. “Impressed” is how I’d describe my reaction to a friend demonstrating they could solve a Rubik’s cube in 3 minutes.
When writing Japanese, there’s a similar challenge with trying to figure out which word to use in unfamiliar situations. I thought it might be helpful to share one of my methods in dealing with these situations...
Namely, I heavily use Example Sentence search tools like Kanshudo and Tangorin. These tools search through example sentences taken from a variety of sources to find the ones that contain the keyword or phrase you put in. When I’m struggling to find the Japanese equivalent of an English word, I look up the word in English using those tools. Or, if I want to verify that I’m properly understanding the nuance associated with an unfamiliar Japanese word, I look it up and read the sentences that pop up to get a feel for the situations that fit the word.
Here’s an example of when it might be helpful. Imagine I want to say in Japanese
His cooking skills are improving.
I don’t know how to say “skill”, so I look it up. Depending on the dictionary, I get:
スキル
上手
技術
腕
熟練
Okay... but which one should I use? I try putting the whole thing into a translation tool, and I get:
彼の料理スキルは向上しています
In this sentence, I’m not only still unclear whether I should use 「スキル」, but now I’m also questioning how they translated “improving”. What is [向上する」, and why was it chosen?
This is where doing an example sentence search might provide a better result. Looking up “skill” in Tangorin, I look at the example sentences to find a context similar to my intended meaning. Luckily for me, I see the following example on the first page of results:
If I were to have searched for “cooking skill”, I would even get an exact match:
Now, I feel more comfortable forming my own sentence. I write “His cooking skills are improving” as:
彼は料理の腕が上がっている
More importantly, reading through the example sentences helps me understand in what kinds of situations I would use 技術 vs 腕 for example. And that’s something that’s hard to get from a textbook.
Do you have any tricks for figuring out the nuances of unfamiliar words? If so, let me know!
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Temple
Winchester brothers (separate) x reader
A/N: Basically just how the Winchester brothers would react to you not taking care of yourself while you are researching for a hunt. Gender neutral reader.
Dean:
Oh honey you’ve been working on a completely ridiculous hunt that feels like a wild goose chase
You can’t seem to find any information and once you do the monster throws another ability at you that completely derails the research that you’ve been doing for the past few weeks
You decided you were going to hang out and read in your room
You needed the change of scenery and the reception in your room was better
See the funny thing was though
You do this tiny little thing
Where when your working on a particularly hard case you completely forget to check the time and ignore your body’s needs
So you went into full nesting research mode
What does this entail you might ask?
Surviving off energy drinks and the occasional granola bar
Not healthy reader take care of yourself please and thank you
And Dean seems to agree with me
As he should
But he’s also thrown himself headfirst into the bunker library to figure this bitch out
*cough* hypocrite *cough cough*
But its maybe two, three days and you still haven’t really left your room
He starts to notice that he hasn’t seen you in a decent amount of time
He doesn’t know how long it is either tbh
So he starts to look for you
After maybe twenty minutes of searching around the bunker, he returns to the library sans (y/n)
He starts looking around the library
He’s smart when he wants to be but he still has his blond moments
Finally, sam points out that you’re probably in your bedroom
So dean goes to knock and sees the freaking mess around you of energy drinks and maybe two granola bars
And completely
Freaks
The
Fuck
Out
Idk why but I feel like dean is sometimes a neat freak
Like when you get those random bursts of energy to clean your room
He immediately starts to pick up the monster cans that collectively probably took off 5 years of your life
As he’s in the middle of holding like 5 cans he realizes how absolutely recked you look
He’s mad
Like not mad at you mostly
Just mad that he didn’t notice
So he immediately pulls you up from where you’re slumped over your desk like a lion would pick up its child
You don’t even protest
He just throws you into the bathroom before abandoning the cans and following you
He turns on your shower and just looks at you with a glance that says business
You nod at the look
You start to strip while he shuts the door and goes back to cleaning
You leave the shower like 20 minutes later to a clean room and a sticky note with a terrible drawing of a stack of pancakes that made you laugh
You get dressed and walk into the kitchen where Dean was making your breakfast
He gives you a long lecture over your first real meal in days about how taking care of yourself is important and you needed to do better
The entire time he just glares at you in hypocrisy
Sam:
Research is fucking hard
And sam knew that
But he also loved you
And seeing you push yourself that hard always pained him
But based on his past college experiences he knows that sometimes just locking yourself away is the only way to get something done
You had been researching about ghosts for the brother’s upcoming hunt for a few days now
There had been some pretty violent and vengeful ghosts in a small town a few hours away
This hunt had been offered to you by some fellow hunters because this apparently wasn’t a simple salt and burn
They tried everything and the ghosts just wouldn’t stay dead
And of course, you took one look at the information they sent you before taking a copy of everything they knew already and walked to your room
You scrounged the internet for anything you could find on the ghosts and you didn’t stop digging until there was nothing new to find
Once you had all your information you started piecing it together
You had a huge cork board where you would tack things up at mark each piece of information with a different color that helped you piece together the case
All the while you’re making the boys secret identities
Making their identities required you to look and make sure that there weren’t already agents with their names that could easily be googled
And then you had to put the two of them in the database and make everything look official
It honestly was a piece of work that took you a few days
The entire time you aren’t looking at how long has passed since you holed up in your room
Spoiler alert it’s been a hot minute
Such a smoking minute in fact Sam gets concerned and breaks away from his own personal prep for the hunt to come check on you
And he’s concerned with what he finds
Impressed
But concerned
So he shuts your laptop on you to have you explain what you found
Mostly to get your eyes away from your computer
Also to learn the information
But mostly for your wellbeing
After your done, you move to go back to your laptop
He pulls a ‘Nah bitch you thought’
And stands in front of your desk
You’re very unimpressed and pull a bitch face
He gives you the sam Winchester original that says he doesn’t care before he unplugs your laptop and picks it up
Tells you that you can have it back later after you change, shower, and eat
your #unimpressed
So you change
Figuring you can shower before you sleep
You walk to the kitchen expecting to just grab a fast snack and go back to your room and keep working with the info you have
Enter Chef Sammy making you a grilled cheese
You are quite surprised
At his prompting, you sat down
You gratefully accept the grilled cheese and finish it within a few minutes
You start talking more about the hunt
He quickly silences you
Brain break™
He starts talking about a book that he was reading recently and how he thought you would really like the plot
You just listen to his voice and agree once your grilled cheese is gone that you would love to borrow the book from him
You end up showering and taking a 5-hour nap
And when you awake there’s a book on your desk along with your laptop that just says
“Take care of yourself, please”
#dean wichester x reader#dean x reader#dean x you#dean x gender neutral reader#dean x y/n#winchester brothers#sam winchester x reader#sam winchester x you#sam winchester x y/n#sam winchester x gender neutral reader#sam winchester x reader headcannon#dean winchester x reader headcannon
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What I Thought About "What If...Captain Carter was the First Avenger" from Marvel Studios' What If...
Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.
Back when Marvel Studios announced the new lineup of films and shows, I was admittingly underwhelmed. Nothing we've seen so far has been poorly written, far from it, but during the announcement, nothing really popped out at me as worth getting excited for. That is, except for one series: Marvel Studios' What If... An animated series that changes the canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all through the simple question. The question being, "What if this happened instead of that."
From the get-go, I was sold on this idea. I'm a sucker for hypothetical scenarios, thinking up all the ways of how some of my favorite stories in fiction could be drastically different thanks to one tiny change. Some might call that "Fanfiction the Series," and while you're not wrong, I fail to see how that's a criticism. Because fanfiction can be fun...just as long as you ignore the sick freaks, sure, but it still can be fun! So whether Marvel Studio's What If... is fanfiction or not, it still didn't change how excited I was to watch it. Was it all worth the hype? Well, to answer that question requires spoilers, so keep that in mind as we dive deep into Marvel's most ambitious project yet.
Now, let's review, shall we?
WHAT I LIKED
The Watcher: Gonna get the generals out of the way before I talk about what I specifically like about this episode. Ok? Ok.
Now, using the Watcher as the narrator for this series is just perfect. What If... already has a similar energy to The Twilight Zone: An anthology series that takes viewers to new and mysterious realities all through the guidance of an omniscient narrator. And using the Watcher as that type of narrator might just be the second-best choice...number one would be Stan Lee, obviously, but...he's dead now. May he rest in peace.
I haven't read that many comics, so there's not much that I know about the Watcher's character aside from a ten-second Google search. But something tells me that a character described as a celestial being that observes and records the events surrounding the galaxy sounds like the exact type of omniscience to guide us through the unknown. All added with Jeffrey Wright's performance, who really does convey a character that sounds like he's as old as time and wise beyond his years. Plus, it's pretty cool that such a seemingly odd character now technically plays a major role in the MCU canon. Comics are weird, and if the Watcher proves anything, it's better to embrace that weirdness than deny it.
The Animation: Looks like someone watched Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.
That really is the feeling I got when watching this. What If... doesn't look as good as Spiderverse (Nothing can be as good as Spiderverse), but the idea is still there as it combines primarily CGI animation with a few hand-drawn elements. It makes certain scenes just pop and, at times, even makes specific shots look like they're straight from panels in a comic book. Besides, while Spiderverse still looks better, that doesn't mean the animation isn't phenomenal in What If... The scenery looks gorgeous, the CGI models moderately match their live-action counterparts, the expressions are fantastic, and movements are as smooth as butter. There was definitely some money that went into this series to make it look as good as it did, and my eyeballs were more than grateful because of it. Especially when it comes to--
The Action: Holy s**t, was it a good thing that this series was animated!
The MCU has had its fair share of great fight scenes in the past, but it always felt restricted to what the big superhero fights could be due to everything needing to look "realistic." That all changes in What If... Because now that this series is animated, we can finally chuck realism out the window and allow these characters to be as epic as they were in the comics. The movements are swift, the blows look like they hurt, and best of all, you actually get to see characters fighting each other! There are no random cuts to hide the stunt doubles or weird camera angles to avoid audiences seeing how ugly the CGIed replacements are. We get to see all of the action with zero restraint, thanks to the fact that animation is limitless and allows writers to get away with literally anything. And shows like this make me wonder, "Why the hell isn't the MCU animated?"
Peggy as Captain Carter: It's here that we get into the specifics, and by golly, do I love me some Peggy Carter making a return. And what a return she made!
Seeing Peggy kick Nazi ass as Captain Carter is as awesome as it sounds as she gives a new definition of a "Strong, independent woman." She took s**t from no one and was more than willing to destroy anybody who said differently. It's a ton of fun for fans (the ones who aren't sexist, at least) and even fun for Peggy as well now that she gets a chance to wreck shop. However, that in itself could cause problems. If you watched Agent Carter (a great show, by the way), then you'll know that Peggy doesn't act as...somewhat meatheaded as she does here. As she said it herself, she's "usually more covert than this." And she is, as she was pretty much the first superspy in the MCU, who's impressive through how she effortlessly infiltrates her way to winning the day with diminutive requirements for fighting. So stripping that away gets rid of a core part of what makes her character so interesting. Although, in fairness, you could blame the fact that the reason she's acting like this is that the super-soldier serum is messing with her brain a bit. We've seen through U.S. Agent the reciprocations of the wrong person taking the serum, and while Peggy is far from the worst pick, there are hints of why Steve Rodgers was the best choice. Still, even though it's not the same Peggy Carter, that doesn't mean Captain Carter is a poor addition to the hero roster in the MCU. She's cool in all the right ways, even though they're drastically different from what made her compelling, to begin with.
Howard Stark: Another character I'm more than happy to see again!
Howard didn't leave that much of a grand of an impression in Captain America: The First Avenger, but in Agent Carter (Seriously, great show), he was a blast. You can just tell he was Tony Stark's father through all the ways he fast-talks in and out of problems and brilliantly comes up with solutions thanks to being tech-savvy. The main difference between Howard and Tony, however, is that Howard prefers to stay on the sidelines, where Tony learned to be more proactive. You get a sense of that in this episode. Because even though he goes to save the day, you can tell that he would rather be anywhere else. And, as a bonus, Howard's just funny. Probably not up there as one of the funniest characters in the franchise (Paul Rudd's Ant-Man reigns supreme), but he still cracks me up more times than not. Howard may be nothing more than a side character, but he'll always win me over no matter how small of a role he has.
Steve Rodgers in the Hydra Stomper: Don't mind me. Just admiring the fact that despite being crippled and skinny, Steve Rodgers still finds a way to fight the good fight, which is who Steve is to me. One of the best things about The First Avenger is that it fully understands the hero that is Captain America. Serum or not, he will do all he can to do the right thing and won't give up despite how many times others tell him he should. So if Steve's going to fly around in a suped-up Iron Man suit that's appropriately named "The Hydra Stomper," then Steve'll f**king soar. Because he is a gosh dang superhero, no matter what name he takes at the end of the day.
Fast-Forwarding Through Events: Some fans might take issues with this. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see all the little changes that Captain Carter makes to the story, but realistically that's not the best choice to make. Let's be honest, there's not that much to show other than what this episode did, and doing a full-on rewrite of Captain America: The First Avenger would have rubbed some fans the wrong way. Besides, from what I can tell, most of the What If... comics are one-shots that very rarely branch out into longer arcs. The primary goal is less to write this large-scale story and more of this self-contained narrative that does what it precisely delivers: Show fans a glimpse of what would happen if this happened instead of that. That's what we were given, and I can't really complain that much. I would have loved to have seen more, but I can learn to be happy with what I got.
Colonel Flynn Taking Credit: This guy is sexist and an idiot, and that's why I hate him...but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't at least chuckle when he said everything was his idea. It's such a scumbag move that I couldn't help but find the humor in it.
(Like, what even was that scene where Peggy was pissed at Steve kissing a girl. THEY WEREN'T EVEN DATING !)nd Steve falling in love inThe First Avenger, which certainly wasn't helped by how they had these dumbass misunderstandings of each thinking the other was dating someone else. Here, they at least get to interact, confiding in one another about their insecurities and offer support when needed. And while it may be a little rushed, I'm more willing to believe their romance in under thirty minutes than I did in over two hours. It could have been better, but it also could have been much, much worse.
(Like, what even was that scene where Peggy was pissed at Steve kissing a girl. THEY WEREN'T EVEN DATING AT THE TIME!)
“I won’t tell you anything.”/”He told me everything.”: That's the Peggy Carter I know and love! Added with a solid joke, too.
Steve’s Pratfall: It's nice to know that no matter what universe we see, Marvel is still funny.
Peggy’s Sacrifice: Much like Peggy and Steve's romance, I buy Peggy's sacrifice way more than Steve's. Several fans already pointed out how it makes no sense for Steve to crash the plane into the icy waters when it seemed like he had enough control to land it or could have easily jumped out after aiming for the crash landing. Here, there's a more legitimate reason why Peggy sacrifices herself. The monster was undefeatable, and the only way to stop it was to push it back through the portal. Peggy, being the only one strong enough to do so at the moment, was the only option, and there was no way where she didn't end up going through with the monster. Even her return makes more sense, as I think her being lost to time and space sounds more believable than Steve surviving being frozen in ice. Something no mortal man should live through. Peggy's sacrifice proves that while the MCU can't change its cannon past, the writers learn from their mistakes and make something better.
WHAT I DISLIKED
The Reasoning Behind Peggy Becoming Captain Carter: So, the idea that one small change can greatly alter the story we knew is a great one, and it's one of the main reasons why I was excited about this series...but how does Peggy staying in the room cause the Hydra agent to detonate the bomb early? I understand the ripples that come from the Butterfly Effect, but I feel like that's too big of a leap to reason how Peggy ends up taking the serum instead.
Colonel Flynn: How is it possible that this guy is somehow even more of a pain in the ass than the general he replaced? At least Chester Phillips had the decency to respect Agent Carter!
Red Skull is Still on the Dull Side: Red Skull isn't an awful villain, but he wasn't really a great one. It's the same here, as he's just as forgettable and wooden an episode of television as he was in a full-length movie. But at least he had a cooler death this time.
Sebastian Stan is Not a Great Voice Actor: He's not awful, but his talent really doesn't shine in this regard. Some people think that being an actor and a voice actor is the same thing, but it's not always the case. Through live-action, actors are given a chance to express emotion through their expressions, movement, and voice. With voice acting, actors still have to convey emotions, but strictly through their voice. Meaning that actors like Sebastian Stan are limited to what they're used to and can stumble a bit when trying to perform in a field of acting they're unfamiliar with. You can tell he was trying his best, but this type of thing can take far more practice for others to perfect.
“Whew. Thanks. You almost ripped my arm off.”: ...hhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHA! HA HA! Ah...oh man...I, uh...I felt the internal bleeding with that one. Wow. Just...wow.
Bucky Leaving After Steve “Died”: Ok, now that's the biggest bout of bulls**t I've ever heard. BUCKY WOULD BE WITH STEVE 'TILL THE END OF THE LINE AND WOULD NOT HAVE LEFT THAT QUICKLY!
...This episode did Bucky dirty, didn't it?
IN CONCLUSION
I'd say that "What If...Captain Carter was the First Avenger" is an A-. It's still a solid start of what I can already tell will be a great series, but some elements could have used some polishing out. I loved it, but it wasn't as bloody brilliant as it could have been.
(And I meant it: WATCH AGENT CARTER! It's pleasantly surprising!)
#marvel cinematic universe#mcu reviews#marvel studios what if#peggy carter#captain carter#steve rodgers#hydra stomper#howard stark#bucky barnes#what i thought about#what if reviews
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Blimey - JJ Maybank x reader
a\n: i was feeling kinda un-inspired from writing requests so i wrote whatever came to mind and i’m actually happy with the result. @mclementine6 said JJ so there ya go.
trigger warning: underage drinking, cussing a little bit
plot: JJ is in love with the daugher of the owner of the hotel he works at.
word count: 2613
JJ Maybank was every girl's dream. He was the blond surfer with the blue eyes, amazing body and this reckless charm to him. He was a bad boy that you can bring home. The problem was, he has one girl in mind, and she was, somehow, the only one who was able to resist his smile. Well, her and Kie.
This girl was (y\n). her father was the owner of the hotel he worked at, so he got to see her often. He has been trying for years to get her heart, and she kept turning him down.
"why isn't she into me? I mean, not to brag, but look at this" he said, motioning all over his body. He was sitting with his friends at John B's, enjoying the empty place since John's uncle was away, as usual. "maybe it's the cockiness" Kie said, and JJ scrunched his face at her, repeating the sentence in the worst female impression to ever be made. John laughed lightly, "maybe she's just not into this" he said, motioning around the dirty floor, cheap beers and empty chips bags.
"(y\n) is not like that" JJ insisted, "if she was, she wouldn't be as nice to me, but she is always greeting me, with a smile, even when she's with her stupid boyfriend" he explained. "she's just nice, especially for a Kook. Even I like her" Kie says. "did it cross you're mind she's not into you… because she's into her boyfriend?" Pope said, sipping his beer. "come on, I don't know if I would even consider that nerd a boyfriend, what is he going to do, recite the whole pie numbers until the boredom kills me?" JJ sighs, finishing his beer and grabbing a new one. "no" John B stops him, "we cannot afford the amount of Beer you consume". JJ laughs, "good point buddy" he says, "have a shift in a few hours anyway. There's a Kook ball tonight at the hotel, a charity event for-" "Ocean Friends" Kie says, "I'm so exited those rich monsters are finally helping with their money". "you're one of them" John teases, but she ignores him. "well, I should get going, I need to change for the event" she says, getting up and handing JJ the half empty beer bottle. He's exited and reaches out to grab it, but she flips the bottle and spills the beer on poor JJ's hair. "oh, oops" she says, not even attempting to sound like it was really an accident. "Kie! What was that for?" JJ says, his hair dripping beer all over the floor. "you stink, you need to shower, this is a big evening, buddy" Kie says, staring to leave. "I wasn't stinky before you-" "you were" Pope cuts him off. "yeah bro, surfing might involve getting wet, but it's not a shower" John B agrees. "you guys are-" JJ started, but gave up and made his way to the bathroom at John B's.
"oh, sweetie, you look so beautiful" (y\n)'s mom said, leaning at the door frame, admiring her daughter. "thanks" (y\n) replied, checking out the different angles in the mirror. "Shaun is gonna think the same" (y\m\n) added, walking inside her daughter's room. "Shaun dumped me" (y\n) admitted, "decided I wasn't smart enough for him". "well, that was not smart of him, love" (y\m\n) said, smiling at her pun and redoing the braid that fell down (y\n)'s back. Her daughter was not as satisfied. "too soon?" her mom asked, placing the braid and her hands on (y\n)'s shoulders. "no, no. I just… I guess I just don't care as much as I thought I would" (y\n) said, resting he right hand on her mom's left hand before turning around. "maybe you didn't love him" Mrs., (y\l\n) says, looking at her daughter's face. "maybe" (y\n) sighed and started leaving her room, still holding her mom's hand. (y\m\n) pulled on her daughter's hand, causing the teen to stand in front of her again. "maybe it's because you love someone else, let's say, a certain handsome young waiter?" her mom asks. "do you mean that Maybank kid?" (y\n) laughs, "no, hell will freeze before I'll see him in a different light. Not just metaphorically, but also, any other light that is not of the dining or ball room, because I won't see him outside of work" she's quick to deny liking the Pogue as more then a co-worker. Was he a friend to her, or was she secretly hoping for something else?
"okay" he mother said, putting her hands up to show she surrenders. "okay" (y\n) says. She gets to the stairs, her father already waiting. Her mom joins, and they all enter together, her parents holding hands and she's all alone.
"hey there, (y\n\n)" a familiar voice says, "do you want a fine, red wine or do you want me to sneak you some Coke from the back?" the blond boy winks. "hey JJ, water is just fine for now" she replies. He smelled nicer than the usual sea, sweat and cologne mix that was unique to him. "you are so boring" JJ sighs, but goes toward the bar to get her water. She looks at him as walks away. "maybe it's because you love someone else, let's say, a certain handsome young waiter?" her mother's voice whisper in her head, but she ignores it.
Sure, JJ was handsome, hardworking, caring and extremely persistence. He's been attempting to get her to go on one single date with him for almost a year, ever since he got the job at the hotel. She worked with him – it was her father's idea, that she'd work at the hotel. That way she can keep a close eye on the employees and learn work ethics and to appreciate money even though it came easily to her family.
"your water, M'lady" the blond boy smiled, handing out a glass. "well, thank you, sir Maybank" she replied with her charming smile. "so, I saw your boyfriend, but he didn't walk with you. Isn't that some weird Kook tradition, to walk in with your significant other-?" "he broke up with me" she cuts him off. "oh, why's that?" JJ asked. in his eyes (y\n) was perfect – why would a guy who can't get better and not only because there's no such thing, but because (y\n) is already out of his league- why would he break up with her?
"I'm not smart enough, apparently" she laughed, "but it's whatever, I don't care". "not smart enough? But you use all of these fancy words like… like that one time you rejected me and said that I'm a hedonist. I had to google that later" JJ said. "between the two of us JJ, I google search fancy words and use them to sound smart" she admits. "well, that is very smart of you" JJ smiled at her. "whatever" she rolled her eyes. "no, really. I think you are a smart, beautiful young lady. His loss" JJ says, taking a step closer to her. "god, JJ you are such a sycophant" she sigh. "you're doing that again!" JJ laughed. "excuse me" an older man says, "can I get a vesper Martini?". JJ nods, "sure thing. shaken, not stirred". The old man seemed confused but waited for JJ to come back with his drink. Meanwhile, he talked to (y\n), who pretended to care about his new boat and how his middle son got a house in the Bahamas. "enjoy your drink agent 007" JJ said, handing the old man his drink as promised.
The old man left, and JJ tried to revive the conversation. "so, where were you?" JJ asked. "I called you a sycophant" (y\n) replied. "right" JJ smiled. "look, JJ, you should work, and I have to talk to people" she said, and JJ had no choice but to agree. He did have to work.
"hi Kiara, Mrs. and Ms. Carrera" (y\n) smiled at her friend. "(y\n)" Kie smiled politely, hugging the other teen. "oh, you look so lovely, (y\n)" Anna said, "this dress looks great on you". "thank you, Ms. Carrera, you look absolutely ravishing yourself" (y\n) smiled. Both Kie and (y\n) are trying not to laugh at the ridiculous politeness, but the adults are in awe. The music changes, and (y\n) holds her dress up for a bow-like gesture, "Kiara, would you like to join me for a dance "oh (y\n), I would love to accompany you" Kie bows back, and the moment they are far from the Carreras, Kiara released the laugh she was holding.
"what was that, (y\n)? you sounded ridiculous. Good thing you didn't threw in a British accent" Kie said. "hey, it was hard not to do the British accent. my parents asked to be extremely nice and polite. Adults love when a 16-year-old uses fancy words" (y\n) explained. It was a very important fundraiser. Her parents were barley convinced to host it, but it was important for her and her best friend, so she worked hard to make it happen.
Kie and (y\n) were dancing, and JJ looked at them, charmed. The way (y\n) laughed as she moved right on the beat, loosening up a bit. She was usually very uptight, but every time her act slipped, he fell harder and harder. Every time she accidently cursed or was less then the perfect daughter in any way, she was something better: herself. Her fun, smart, sarcastic, self. Her happy self. He knew that dating Shaun was a reputation thing, and deep down he knew she can't choose him because of reputation. Her parents loved him, that's for sure, but will they be supportive if anything other than the weird friendly rivalry bloomed between them?
(y\n) left the dance floor to have some political interactions. She was born as a Kook and she was doing a great job acting like one with her "small person who uses big words" persona. She enjoyed it, it was like doing theatre only it was a nearly 24\7 show she couldn't really quit.
After a round of the different variations of "oh, your son's fiancé is so beautiful", "what a lovely little creature" and pretending to care about the new yacht model someone got, the music changed into a slower one. Most of the adults she had to talk to were there with a date, so she was left alone and finally, she could go look for Kie.
When she finally spotted her friend, she was on the dance floor with another friend you recognized as Pope. oh well she thought to herself, at least I get a break.
Someone tapped on her shoulder. He was holding up a black tray, with a few glasses on. "a drink, M'lady?" JJ asked, and she sighed. "yeah, sure" she said, and he handed her a tall glass filled with a pink-tinted beverage. "on the house" he smiled, and walked off. She thought he was leaving, but he returned after putting the tray down on the table near him. "look, (y\n), I know you constantly reject me, but I know you love this song and it's a shame if you won't dance to it" the blondie said. She took another sip of her drink, that was surprisingly sweet. "is that why you gave me a drink, to get me to dance with you?" she asked him. "maybe. Did it work?" JJ said, and she smiled at him. "you know what? it might have" she said. He offered her his hand, and she rested the drink on the table near her to take the offer.
They made their way to an available space on the dance floor, and she placed her hands on his shoulders. He seemed a bit confused for a second, not sure what to do with his hands, but he looked around to find his next move. "you're supposed to-" (y\n) started, but JJ cut her off with a "no, I know" and placed his hands on her waist. The space was awkward, and so she took a step closer and closed her hands behind his neck. He locked his hands behind her waist, blushing. She laughed. "you look like a tomato" she teased. He looked at her, slightly offended, "shut up, you look like a…strawberry yourself" he said, getting all defensive. She bit her lips to hold in the laugh, "really?" she asked, looking up at him. they locked eyes, and both turned even rosier. "yeah, but you're still looking absolutely ravishing" he said, adding a British accent to the last words. (y\n) laughed, "did Kie told you about that?". "oh, she did, she told me and Pope, and I texted it to John B" he said, "but I think it's cute. You're a small person using big words" he added once he noticed the slightest hurt in her eyes, and she couldn’t help but return the shy smile.
They danced, and the silence wasn't awkward at all. They couldn't take their eyes off each other's. The eye contact made both feel the butterfliers they heard about so much. "hey, JJ, can I ask you something?" she suddenly said. "sure" he said, nodding. "why do you keep chasing me even though I have turned you down so many times?" she says, her voice so quiet it's almost a whisper. "well" he answers, "there's something special about you. You're… interesting, there's more to you than what you let most people see, and every time you crack the good-girl act next to me, I'm like 'shit, I really want to know this person better', ya' know?" he said. She nods slowly. "that, and the fact you don't want me back is so hot" JJ added, ruining the moment. "you were so sweet for a second there, JJ. Almost gave up" (y\n) said, looking right in his eyes with a sweet yet somewhat devilish grin. "oh, shit" JJ laughed, "can I try to change your mind?" he raised his eyebrow and getting a bit closer to her. "JJ, this is not the place or t-" she says, looking around. One hand left her waist and brushed her jawline, forcing her to look at him. The boy has made the decision. He leaned closer to her, and the questions filled her head. She knew she wanted to kiss him just as bad as he wanted to kiss her, but what does that mean? What happens next?
The moment they locked lips, everything disappeared, the only thought she had in her mind was him. his hands cupped her cheeks when she returned the kiss. It was short, but sweet, and full of emotions. It felt different than the way kissing Shaun made her feel. She was exited, and happy, and sad about the fact it couldn't last forever.
"wow" she let out with a light laugh when JJ pulled away. "don't you mean… I don't know, what's a fancy way to say 'wow'?" he mumbled under his breath, tempted to reconnect their lips. "blimey" he remembered a word that can fit, "don't you mean blime-" he said, her laughter cutting him off. "shut up JJ, you are ruining the moment!" she said, punching his chest lightly. "well, I do have a bachelor's degree in ruining the moment, so" he says, leaning down for another kiss, surprised when he wasn't pushed away.
"wait, does it mean you'll go on a date with me?" he says once the kiss ends for the sake of breathing. "I guess so" (y\n) smiled at him, and his smile was bigger and brighter then usual. She never noticed how his smile lights up his face, and the whole room. "cool".
tag list: @mary-grace-milne @loveylangdon
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