#fun fact: mad abt the boy was one of the first recorded uses of the word 'gay' meaning homosexual
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#wentz.txt#polls#fallout new vegas#mine is mad about the boy#fun fact: mad abt the boy was one of the first recorded uses of the word 'gay' meaning homosexual#(the scrapped second verse written by noel coward)#there is a recording of him singing it#fallout#fnv
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Day 8 of the tristamp analysis marathon and jesus christ i am!!! really excited to do these now because people have been adding onto/being nice abt my stuff and that's super cool. Thank you again to @tristampparty for running this! I didn't manage to join in on the book club last year so it's nice to have a fun little event all the same
[But as for next book club,,,, well. I'm extremely transgender about trimax and would love to join in]
As always, spoilers for trigun stampede and trigun maximum! Also some CWs for Vash-typical passive suicidal tendencies and discussion of his psyche
So! Episode 8! I have.... mixed feelings, on how Tristamp portrays Knives. On one hand, I definitely think that we're being lead to believe that Vash has always been a peace-loving kid and that Knives has always had those tendencies, which would set up for season 2 to break that down. I hope.
The one thing I couldn't figure out, ofc, is the Knives not needing to eat thing - My friend millions-dykes theorized a black hole/white star dynamic a little while ago [as seen in the screenshot. I'm Organ, they are Nagito Malmonella]
aaaaaaaaanyway, we still get these little instances of knives just being a kid, and it's the funniest thing in the world to me. Vash is also apparently in tune with him enough to pick up on that and it's such twin behaviour.
There's also just a lot of cases of Knives smiling or being giggly around Rem, which,,,, he's such a mama's boy like we know this but it's so nice to have it reinforced. This theory of Knives having always been cold/standoffish just doesn't track - the only time he usually seems uncomfortable is when Rem touches him or when he talks about Plant stuff - particularly when he's talking about being different to Vash. Knives, to me at least, is a tad autism-coded :]
OKAY TO THE SCENE[TM]
So obviously this has changed from when we first saw Vash tell the story. Vash's sequence of events runs as follows:
Vash walks up to the little hill that Knives is laughing maniacally on top of -> Knives says "I finally did it! It worked! -> Vash confronts him with "How could you do that?" -> Knives reassures him with "Don't worry, I left the Plant ship" -> Knives says "I even got Rem killed!" -> Knives points out that Vash is his accomplice, but does not elaborate why. "Don't get mad. You're already my accomplice, isn't that right Vash?"
Now the sequence of events in this version is provably more accurate (the same audio is used in the black box recording discovered later), and goes as follows:
Vash wakes up from the escape pod and goes "Nai, where are you?" -> He spends some time following Knives' footsteps where he sees the crashed pods and fire and Knives laughing on the hill -> Knives says "I finally did it! It worked!" -> Vash says "I can't believe you killed Rem!" -> Knives says "Don't get mad. You're already my accomplice, it was you who told me the passcode - Am I right, Vash?"
So there are several inconsistencies in these two versions of events, most notably for me is that Vash is the one to bring up Rem. If the 1st telling was correct, it would imply that Knives wanted to kill Rem, but that part is conspicuously absent, because Vash is the one that brings her up.
Vash's retelling also omits the fact that he was the one to give Knives the passcode, shifting more blame onto Knives. It's very very interesting to me. Finally, Knives mostly has his back to Vash when he dissolves into laughter again. Which is a technique often used to hide if you've been crying or are having a hard time keeping some emotional responses down.
And I'm not even done with this flashback! The scene where Vash just lies down and wants to give up is,,, Well, in Trimax, ever since Tesla, Vash has struggled with suicidal ideation - he's the one that asks for Rem to just kill him, and that's heartbreaking, but we also see a bit of that leaking through here again, where he just wants to lie down and give up. It also gives me hope we're gonna see that Tesla aftermath scene in the next season, because that'll be breaking Vash down into his more complicated, messy parts.
Okay so I do think that the subtitles Aniwave uses are... a little bit Wack, I'm pretty sure that they're unofficial and probably a bit wonky, and I'm only slightly conversational in Japanese so I have 0 idea about this, but hey I think someone should inform Wolfwood, for no particular reas- [I am dragged away by security]
[I did check the dub, which referred to Plants giving birth which I think is much more likely to be accurate. But it'd still be funny for Wolfwood to have to sit through Plant sex ed so neither of them get pregnant]
Rem really was very, very young,,,,,
There are four photos here, but only one is given to Vash. I wonder why,,,, Possibly to gauge his recognition of Knives being in the photo, or keeping the other three to learn what they can about Knives.
The night/day progression cycle here doesn't really match up with Vash's little tally, so I don't think it's counting days. Given that he apparently went to say hello to everyone in cold sleep while on the ship, I think it's a little more likely that the tally marks are for them....
Do we ever actually get to hear Rem say the blank ticket thing in a flashback? I don't recall it, but it is said to Vash after the whole Stabbing Incident in Trimax, so that's possibly why they've kept it from us.
Theeee markings under this Plant's eyes match Elendira's, which. Obviously Elendira in tristamp is part plant there's just so many little details that lend themselves to it,,,
The HAIR COLOUR CHANGE AAAA
I like the little wall of Vash baby pics in the background here, but he still didn't get any of his 3 other ship pics back :(
Finally, Vash's line of "an Independent will make up for what an Independent has done" is interesting because his guilt complex really does spiral, huh. The reason Knives telling him "Oh, you just feel guilty for the Big Fall, huh?" in a later ep fucks him up so much is because like. That is kinda true to an extent. Vash is his own kind of self-deluding, but that only really starts spiraling at about this point in time.
Alright, setting up for a Day of analysis tomorrow, because I have many thoughts and feelings surrounding Knives (I love him very dearly and I hate him a lot (affectionate)) and we Will spend some time talking about Trimax Flavour Knives because my understanding of him is fundamental to my understanding of Tristamp Flavour Knives.
Thank y'all for the fun comments and theory addons!!! I'm having a lot of fun and we're really getting into how [normal] I am about Trigun!
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・ 。 ◟ major big uwu moment , i haven’t been this excited abt an rp in a minute & i’m ecstatic for my muse ! i’m really glad to meet you all , i’m cc , nineteen & a notorious loser . a quick about regarding seamus , former nasa nerd , lover of stars , fight mode because he’s been doing it his whole life . this is entirely too long & winded , but i think ( ??? ) it’s cool n e way . like this & i’ll come to u for plotting or , lmk if you’d prefer to plot on d*scord .
stats / wanted connections tag / connections page
( ben hardy. cis male. he / him. ) / SEAMUS OLMSTEAD has been with the group for two years and is currently doing their part in the community as a car mechanic. while here, the twenty-nine year old has created the reputation of being abrasive & cursory, but can also be known as venturesome & jocular. in a sticky situation, they will resort to fight mode and their current weapon is a handmade spear.
𝓲. 𝕒𝕓𝕣𝕚𝕕𝕘𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥 .
full name : seamus lucas olmstead nickname(s) : lucas , bastard , selfish wanker age : twenty - nine gender / pronouns : cis gendered male / he / him sexuality : bisexual / panromantic hometown : des moines , iowa position : car mechanic previous occupation : aeronautical & aerospace engineer faceclaim : ben hardy
fun facts : misses his cigarettes * clenches fists * every gd day , hasn't brushed his hair in three months , used to be a division one collegiate swimmer , doesn't know how he made it this far because he's loud & selfish , stargazes at night by himself :( , has worked on rockets , gives good hugs but doesn't give many out .
aesthetic : the dark side of the moon , quiet contemplations while bathing in the moonlight , drowning in a field of grass while mourning a broken family , running in slow motion in the shallows of a pool , blessings from artemis , a worn out id badge unable to be thrown away , targets on your back & watching out for yourself first & yourself only .
𝓲𝓲. 𝕔𝕙𝕣𝕠𝕟𝕚𝕔𝕝𝕖 .
death tw .
bathed in the moonlight at his birth , the first thing icy hues see are the stars . implanted into his memory , he grows up loving the night sky . at four , he brings his twin baby brothers out on the rooftop his window leads to & shows him the constellations the night they come home from the hospital . his parents yell at him for endangering his brother , but all he wanted to do was show him his love for space .
he grows up thinking he’ll go to the stars . he’s smart & he’s sharp , but he can’t ignore the way the kids in his class laugh at him , how they make fun of him when he comes to school with a fishbowl around his head like he’s an astronaut . he doesn’t fight back at first because he can’t – he’s small , skinny & he’s a nerd ; that’s how it is & that’s just something he’ll have to ignore if he wants to go to space .
& so , thirteen years of his life he’s a nerd ; nothing but a skinny little boy with his head stuck in a science textbook & that’s his brand . but in eighth grade , his mom of tired of her skinny lil son coming home with bruises & black eyes because he’s fighting his bullies , so she signs him up for the swim team . tiny , little seamus who lives in a land-locked state , forced to swim .
luckily though , it all works out for the better . he takes to water like he’s taken to STEM & it’s all in his favor . over the next few years , he finally hits his growth spurt ( say hello to 6′2″ , seamus ) & buffs out , gaining a swimmer’s body while still keeping up his smart lil head . he learns to fight , finally , & people leave him alone when they realize he’s no longer just brains , he’s also brawn .
at the end of his high school career , stanford gladly offers him an athletic scholarship & to nobody’s surprise , he’s accepted into the aeronautics & aerospace engineering program . he thrives , obviously , balancing swimming & his heavy workload very well . college is a breeze & he loves it , because he’s met like minded people with like minded goals & nobody’s making fun of him when he snags an internship with nasa after graduation .
but , his senior year , his youngest brother – the younger twin , abraham , is killed in a freak accident & seamus doesn’t hear about it because he’s too busy . it takes a full day & over twenty people until he hears the news & it tears him apart . abraham’s death tears the entire family apart – how did a seventeen year old pass so suddenly & so quickly without any warning ?
well , seamus doesn’t ever return home after the funeral . he throws himself into work , finishing his masters in record time , earning a job at nasa by the time he’s twenty - four . he’s a full blown rocket scientist & an astronaut in training , which should make him happy but he’s felt nothing but childlike anger since abraham’s death . how unfair , that death just takes & takes & takes .
& death doesn’t get any kinder . twenty - five , his partner dies during flight training & his mom passes suddenly from an illness nobody knew she had . twenty - six & the outbreak starts . all of his friends at nasa die in front of his eyes & by the time he reconnects with his family , he learns his father’s passed getting his remaining brother out safely . as the years go by , his allies die , his enemies die , he kills & he kills & he chalks it up to self defense , but it doesn’t make him feel any better .
he finds woodbridge with his youngest brother by fluke , only convincing them of his worth when he shows him a nasa id he could never bring himself to throw away . since then , he's kept his head down & done his work , doing whatever's asked of him & still keeping to himself . he's a former rocket scientist & he's a smarty , making him quite adaptable & able to fix up almost anything inside the walls . the guy to go to when something miscellaneous needs tweaking or fixing , he gladly tunes things up for no charge as long as no questions are asked .
the final straw , this past year – the death of his brother who left the safezone & never returned . he left a note & all seamus knows is that he’s probably out there dead somewhere . looked hard for a few weeks , but has all but given up . it’s the apocalypse , death is now a common theme .
𝓲𝓲𝓲. 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 .
exterior , he's found his spot as a car mechanic . he used to work on rockets , cars are much easier to work with . on the exterior , he's a jocular guy who's known for making dry jokes at the worst time . selfish , in the way that he tends to look out for himself only in the madness . he's got a reputation for having a face that makes him unapproachable , with anger lined in his features that make those not want to bother him – but , most in the safezone know that he's harmless ( mostly ) . a soft space nerd with something smart to say at any time , he's a loner , but he's good company if you want someone to listen or someone to bounce ideas off of .
interior , there's a quiet rage that's been brewing in his blood for years & he's waiting for it to erupt . it might , if not for the constant apathy that takes over his brain every day he wakes up . the guy to go to when something needs fixing , seamus can hide his anger in death & the world very well . he keeps it in , forcing a well rehearsed smile & carefully chosen expressions to mask his inner thoughts , he wants relief but he doesn't know where to find it .
midway , skilled & experienced , he's shied away from the spotlight most of his life . he's always been one to keep his head down , not bother anyone unless bothered & he intends to keep it that way even in the apocalypse . he'll fix your watch , your car , your fridge – whatever you need , but he won't give up his background or tell you why he keeps his nasa id in his back pocket at all times . quiet and silently intimidating , even if he doesn't intend to come off as that .
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*clears throat* is this thing on ? hi friends im mella ! i go by feminine pronouns n am 19 yrs of achy joints and random migraines . basically 19 going on 107 . i’m here to introduce u to malcolm . fair warning tho .. he is the worst . so if u dont hate both of us by the end of this , feel free to like this or hmu so we can plot smth ?
❛ welcome to new york , malcolm hansen . your resemblance to herman tommeraas is absolutely uncanny . by the looks of your tesla roadster , we’re thinking you’ll fit right in . according to tmz , you just had your twenty second birthday bash . your chances of making it in the city are dicey since you’re unscrupulous , but being captivating gives you an advantage . ( cismale & he/him )
SO let me introduce u to malcolm richard hansen iii , but if u call him anything other than mac , he prob will throw hands . he comes from olllllld money , nobody rly knows how the family got rich initially but his grandpa ( the og malcolm ) made even more money by creating a very successful record label thats now rly dominant in the music industry . his grandpa is currently 79 yrs old n just recently stepped out as the ceo but is still has a lot of influence in the company and obviously in the family . this might sound irrelevant but it will be important later on i promise .
ok so mac was born to mac jr and a former singer named tara michaels . they met when she was in the record label building , for a meeting in regards to a possible contract and the rest was history ? grandpa hated tara and made no secret of his opinions abt her . basically he thought she was a golddigger ( she was ) and his son was stupid ( also true ) , and even refused to attend their wedding ceremony . needless to say , as soon as they got married , the couple left sunny california n settled down in chicago .
mac was his first male grandchild tho , n even if he hated his mother n resented his dads stupidity , mac was kinda like his golden child . so senior kinda stole his grandson ? not rly but he did keep him in la every summer n holidays , when he wasnt in school in chicago .
so mac rly looked up to his grandpa growing up even if he also thought he was an asshole ? they werent super close but had a lot of respect for each other , n mac much preferred spending his time with og mac than with mac jr n his ma ( oh boy this is bound to get confusing ) . but yea , his grandpa was a huge influence on him while growing up , which was mayhaps not a good idea .
once he graduated high school , his grandpa told him that he wanted him to run the company in his dads place bc he wasnt leaving a multibillion dollar company for that doofus , but sneaky old mac told him that there were terms to this development . mac would get the company once he retired , but since his father had been such a dumb fuck , he would only get the company n his money , if he married a woman approved by the senior before he kicked the bucket . mac threw an absolute fit , but eventually came to the conclusion that he’d rather marry someone for convenience than be poor for the rest of his life . which tbh so would i .
ENTER ARRANGED FIANCÉE . they’ve been engaged for about two yrs now but no one is in any rush for the actual marriage . the deal was that they only had to do it before senior died , n since he’s in pretty much perfect help , the duo is just biding their time . mac moved to nyc to live w/ the fiancée , but as�� of now , they r pretty much just roommates atm . so yeah basically thats how mac ended up in this moment in his life lmao .
in regards to his personality , mac is pretty much a mini version of malcolm senior . he’s v confident ( cocky ) n has a LOT of trouble trying to view life by any other point of view than his own . very selfish and honestly not a guy u can put ur trust in ? he’s not like a super asshole or anything , is in fact rly charming n can be a great person to hang out w/ but if you’re his best friend n he feels like he can get away w/ hooking up w your mom ? 12/10 will do it .
is mad into parties ? always hanging out in the hottest spots w all different kinds of ppl until the sun is comin up . he has weird views when it comes to dating which is lowkey for is kinda an asshole who gives no fucks n usually ends up being hated by his exes .
but he’s also a super fun guy to be around !! will always be down for a good time n do his best to cheer u everyone around him . u r always going to be entertained around him there isnt even a choice .
he works on/off for the record label , mostly monitoring bigger artists n such because we love nepotism around here friends , but he also does music every once in a while ? its not frequent , n he mostly writes songs for other artists , but he has previously released an album n scored a couple of #1s . i pretty much think of his vc n style as bazzi’s , but he’s definitely not super active as a singer .
so far this is pretty much it for mac . i’m still working on him a little , but this is an alright outline of his for now . i’m gonna list some possible connections but those are gonna be pretty basic . feel free to hmu in my ims or on discord ( mella is lost #1597 ) where i am p much all the time so we can come up w some bomb ideas ?
someone whos signed to the label n they connected through it ? could be all kinds of stuff actually .
best friends bc even demons need those every once in a while .
exes , all kinds of them but mostly bad terms bc mac is the worst .
pretty much all the fwbs no strings attached things specially if they come w/ angst .
hype friends who r always there to have a good time w each other .
first love type of thing ?
skinny love that will never work ?
i cant think of anything else ? pls dont give up on me tho n like this thing or hmu for plots bye !!!
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Do all the dnd asks!
1. A favorite character you have played.
done!
2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.
o my god.. this is so hard, my group makes really good characters! for each of them:zach - nickels!! trauma child kenku weirdo who sold their soul to talk.. who grew up to be an angry pirate who adopted a child on impulse.ari - lael, obviously. they have a half-elf complex, a good chunk of their personality is being the kid that catches lizards, and they have a robot arm.lemon - honestly? jj devinyl. i mean, john mulaney as a tiefling cleric who loves his wife and is also going completely insane? yeah.bree - i.. love layla. she’s a good-aligned cleric to an evil god and her and kellan are the cutest couple in dnd tbh.connor - guardian is a robot.
3. Your favorite side quest.
o fuck!! y’all.. it’s bufo. it’s the fact that my talking toad npc was so lovable that they unlocked the quest in which his mother hunts him down and tries to kill him so that she can live forever. they killed her ofc and bufo was untransformed into a handsome.. halfling.
4. Your current campaign.
i’m running a murder mystery set aboard an airship! with strong cosmic horror elements! and i’m playing in a large-scale epic about spies caught up in the very start of a continent-wide war.
5. Favorite NPC.
also a very hard question. on one hand, jean is my actual boyfriend and also a literal angel assassin. on the other hand, nika is a child god trapped in an amulet whose super god power makes people trip which is so fucking funny. back around to the first hand, which is now the third, aengus is so well-done as a villain that he’s almost scared me in my real-life actual heart and yet he’s an a huge loser with breakup trauma, which is objectively also so fucking funny. on my fourth hand, fela is my most important npc who i’m probably in love with and she’s been in every one of my campaigns. on my FIFTH hand--
6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).
done!
7. Your favorite downtime activity.
done!
8. Your favorite fight/encounter.
that time nasuada beat lumley up in her own dumb-ass head, and lumley’s response was to find this super hot.
9. Your favorite thing about D&D.
getting together and spending time with my friends! or maybe that it lets me be creative without the stress writing gives me.
10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most.
fav enemy is def aengus!! like wow he’s fucking terrifying!! and i hate yin&yang the most, they were so creepy and cruel and they were never really punished.
11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play?
i dm once a week these days, and i play sporadically. thesis year has been hard on me! but ideally i would love to dm twice a week and play in one or two steady campaigns, or dm once a week with regular one-shot sessions!
12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.
o.. there’s a lot?? my favorite is “honeyclaw pissed on lenthol” bc our barbarian thought it would be a good idea to climb into the robot piloted by the “big bad” (or so we thought at the time), and then to sell her bluff that she was looking for the bathroom, she just...... pissed herself >:(
13. Introduce your current party.
as a dm: lael (half-elf magitechnician who bases their mad science off of cool bugs); guardian (robot paladin on his third life, basically robocop with light existential crises); senhora (brash and kind-hearted by turns, an elf who [REDACTED] before becoming a ranger and bonding w a wolf); jj devinyl (a tiefling cleric who does stand-up comedy and loves his wife); and percy (an android with identity issues, driven by curiosity, and love for magic, and literally no qualms about threatening to kill her friends).
as a player:rowan (the last prince of a lost kingdom and also the saddest, gayest boy in town); ko&kokumo (my elf boy whose soul split in two after leaving his warlock patron, driven by nosiness and romance respectively); honeyclaw (a tabaxi pro-wrestler who deserted her life as a child soldier, pissed on lenthol); peitho (the surprisingly wholesome god of sex, was kinda into the tactics of being a spy before he got distracted by p*ssy); and lumley (the dumbest baby lesbian ever o my god, she’s the daughter of a powerful river goddess and she still can’t get a date).
14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.
that would take me one million years.
15. Do you have snacks during game times?
yeah!! traditionally we take a halfway break at 9 and all go get snacks together, it’s great.
16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer?
i prefer in person, but we play online a lot, and we’ll have to be only online once we graduate.
17. What are some house rules that your group has?
we round up score mods from odds and we don’t pay attention to like.. most of the little rules. it’s more abt the storytelling. (which is why we may switch to a different system if i can seduce them away.)
18. Does your party keep any pets?
o yeah, i think almost every group has had an animal companion. and if not, zach always plays a furry.
19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?
a lot of us roll specific sets for each character!
20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing?
i got into dnd in high school bc i liked a boy who watched community, and then i watched community, and the dnd episode fucking rocked. never got past making characters and one botched attempt at a session. then in my first year of college, i joined the dnd club and i’ve been playing since! so like, three years and some change.
21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?
ya lol i play very much how my character would act and tho that usually goes well for me.. ko wanted to break his pact with aengus despite the Consequences and i didn’t. but overall i think the outcome has been a lot of fun!
22. What color was your first dragon?
silver! just introduced them, actually!
23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns?
all original, baby.
24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?
a ton. as a dm i write........ a lot. i want to have a lot of vivid characters, solid plots, and a huge interwoven world. so my docs are always huge and take me months to finish.
as a player i do less bc players just inherently have far less to do. but i still try put a ton into really developing my character so i can play them more naturally.
For DMs
25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?
in my first campaign, i used a lot of weird memory spells to keep characters from remembering the big bad, because him being unremembered was a HUGE plot point for me. i had two different groups playing in the city at the same time, and one of them.... had this dragonborn who just liked to talk to plants and who hated nobles, and who fucking cast MAGIC MOUTH on their FANNY PACK to record that big bad so that it COULDN’T BE FORGOTTEN. MAGIC MOUTH. THAT’S THE SPELL THAT BROKE ME.
26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters.
i’ve really liked a couple, but i know i haven’t topped the finale for my first campaign. after finally the groups finally came together and killed Shargaas, the city began to crumble around them, and they all watched me set a ten-minute timer for them to figure out how to get away with their lives.
27. Do you allow homebrew content?
o yea, i adore MFOV particularly.
28. How often do you use NPCs in a party?
o there are always a couple kicking around.
29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?
we don’t really.. do... that second thing....
30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?
yes.
For Players
31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?
o fuck. uh probably wizard. and i love................. half-elves.
32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?)
i really like long-distance damage dealers.
33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?
i always start with a concept and then i just write an entire novel ell em ay oh.
34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?
done!
35. How much roleplay do you like to do?
like, 70% rp, 30% jokes,
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could u do a fic abt storm? idc what it's abt but if u cld thatd b great!
Sure thing, anon! Here’s a fic about how Storm spent the off-season timeskip at the beginning of Cars 3!
Fic: Motherland
They’re in Gemmayzeh, in a restaurant with a dress code to meet an uncle the American side of Storm’s family is elated to see. His mother cries.
Half an hour ago, winding through Beirut, Storm asked why a hauler couldn’t take them. But Storm’s mother wants the entire city to see her. Normally, Storm doesn’t mind being the center of attention, either, but none of these cars know who he is, and no one cares. Not here. Storm doesn’t like being reminded that his reputation doesn’t always speak for itself.
“At the restaurant, don’t speak,” his mother tells him. Whisper, if he must. She says, “Your Arabic is… ” and she means it’s like a baby’s. His family–well, his mother’s family–is very well-known in Lebanon, and there will be listeners.
If Gale were here, she’d laugh about this. She’d laugh about anyone telling Storm to be quiet, and she’d laugh at Storm being mad about it. She’d tell him his mother’s probably doing him a favor–Storm doesn’t want to talk to any of these cars; really, he’s been given permission to be sullen and silent. It’s a win-win.
She’d be right, but Storm’s still angry.
–
“Are we going to have to pray?” Storm asks. A private jet is launching them over the pole, straight from LAX to Lebanon. “Like, five times a day, facing–”
“We’re Maronites,” says his mother, tersely. Like that explains anything. Storm’s pretty sure he isn’t one.
–
“Do you have any plans for the off-season?” asks Shannon Spoke.
He’s never really understood her mannerisms, can’t tell if she likes him or wished he’d rot. She’s too professional. He tells her he’ll be overseas, training with supercars.
“You go where the competition is,” he says. He sounds self-assured and silky, like usual. When he watches the broadcast, he believes it.
In Lebanon, he tries to make his world as much like Los Angeles as possible. He doesn’t need to be worldly and he doesn’t want to “train” with supercars. In Lebanon, the Internet is the same. The fuel is a little better, to be honest. But those mountains could be the Sierras and the water could be the Pacific; they’re just out of reach, just like in Los Angeles. From Storm’s vantage point, Lebanon is just like Los Angeles.
Storm has never been to the mountains. He’s never touched the sea.
“Don’t people just live on the beach over there?” asks a cousin, in English Storm’s mother called “stylized” and Storm just thinks is bad. But it’s still better than his Arabic.
This cousin lives on the beach.
“Have you ever been to Disneyland?” the cousin asks. “What about Jag-Z’s house?”
When Storm turns one year old, he’s in Lebanon. His mother claims he’s been here before. Obviously, he doesn’t remember. He is one year old, and he has been to twenty-four racetracks. And Lebanon.
–
They are faster. Storm doesn’t need to race them to know. His cousin has diamond-encrusted headlights just because he can. He wears gold instead of chrome. And he can drive 400 kilometers an hour. Storm’s not even sure how fast that is, because kilometers mean nothing to him, but he’s a racecar. He knows speed when he sees it. He knows horsepower when he hears it. And he can feel it through the road, into his tires, into the core of him.
They’d never make it 600 miles, though. Not in the dense muggy heat of North Carolina, no sea breeze. No breaks.
“Why would anyone do that?” asks a different cousin, incredulous.
Storm hates them, because supercars aren’t cars; not really. Not according to him. Putting wheels on something doesn’t make it a car.
Fun fact: Half the cars in the stands in North Carolina think the same of him. All the Next-Gens. “Stock cars,” indeed. The other half probably don’t think even think something like McQueen is a real car. Again, not really.
“He doesn’t really… belong here,” says yet another cousin. She’s a contortion of metal that doesn’t seem like a car at all. She’s the fastest. She looks at him, and it’s a mixture of pity and resignation.
Storm’s an adult. He’s a superstar. And he needs babysitting.
And maybe that’s not what she said at all. She was speaking too fast for Storm to understand, and it’s then Storm realizes why his mother thinks he’s an idiot. She’s always spoken to him like one. It’s really not his fault he hit the road with IGNTR and guess what! Newsflash: Talladega doesn’t have a lot of Arabic speakers. Neither does Daytona. Charlotte. Kansas. Phoenix.
And now he can’t understand what this stupid girl is saying.
“The movie we want to see is in Arabic. Based on a Kahlil Gibran book,” she says. “We don’t think you’d understand it.”
“Oh, Kahlil Gibran,” Storm replies airily, in English. He hasn’t figured out how to be skillfully sarcastic in Arabic. “He’s a legend. Right up there with Dean Koontz.”
There’d been a Koontz novel in the LAX bookstore, discounted 70% and collecting dust.
“Who?” asks the cousin.
Storm mimes haughty shock.
–
There’s a story that everyone in the garage kind of knows, about McQueen and some terrible desert town and whatever it is he’d learned there. Or at least, McQueen seems to assume everyone knows it, and everyone gives a damn. Storm is sure he’s not the only one who doesn’t. At all.
But stranded in Beirut, which is not in a desert and is not a small town, that’s what comes to mind.
If Storm has any stories to bring back, they all end the same way.
He wants to get out of here.
–
His mother cries when they leave. Out and out weeps. Storm’s mother doesn’t cry about anything, ever, but she cries when they leave Beirut. She’s been living in America for thirteen years and Lebanon is the only home she feels she’ll ever have. If it weren’t for Storm’s father, she’d never leave it. Storm’s father is the only thing she loves more than her motherland, and sometimes Storm wonders if even that is true. Maybe she’ll disappear into some casino in Jounieh and he’ll never see her again.
She’s self-conscious about her emptiness, when it’s just the two of them parked in first-class. “You wouldn’t understand,” she says. “You can’t.”
She’s right.
–
“Welcome home,” Gale beams. She meets them on track at Daytona. Qualifying for the Florida 500 is in a week.
When Storm lays down an all-time track record during practice, RSN says he’s marking his territory. He’s the Piston Cup’s youngest, newest champion, and he’s coming home to roost. He’s the king of the superspeedway.
“And also holds track records at multiple intermediate and short tracks on the schedule,” Bob Cutlass clarifies. “Not just superspeedways.”
Darrell Cartrip guffaws. “Heck, put Stormy boy on anything, and he’ll make it a superspeedway!”
When Cartrip talks about Daytona, Storm’s pretty sure his voice breaks. If he had to live an ocean away from Daytona, he’d probably cry too. It’s the home of the Piston Cup, after all. And Cartrip bleeds race fuel.
–
Home. Home home home. It’s all anyone ever talks about.
–
McQueen shows up eventually. When he talks he sounds even more homespun than Storm remembers him, as though he’s spent his off-season buried in a southern swamp somewhere, befriending the Piston Cup’s lowest common denominators. Given the sporty yellow thing and the rusty old truck in tow, this probably isn’t untrue.
–
“You don’t belong– on this track–!” Storm grits out, fender to fender with that sporty yellow thing. He says it because it’s true. He belongs here; she can’t. This is the only place he belongs.
And then, at the finish line, he doesn’t.
–
He doesn’t.
–
He’s never felt like the world was so far away.
–
When he returns to Los Angeles after the race, his mother is in town. She’s discussing business, catching lunch with Storm’s agent, his contracts attorney. That she and Storm cross paths is sheer coincidence. She hadn’t exactly penciled him in.
She’s polished and detailed, immaculately presentable and not at all the woman crying into magazines, weeping streaks across her windshield 41,000 feet above sea level. But Storm thinks maybe, just maybe, that might be their common ground. What he’d felt, he still doesn’t know, he can’t really tell. But she’s his mother, after all. Maybe if she–
Storm narrows his eyes. Maybe she could be useful to him for once in her life.
“Good morning, habibi,” she says absently, still scanning over some papers.
He wants her to look up. To look at him.
He wants her help. He wants her to explain his feelings to him, tell him she understands. She can talk about his stupid uncle if she wants to. Even the cousins. He feels stupid wanting any of that.
When Storm’s mother finally looks up, she takes one glance and says, “Oh, stop. You lost a race, not a country.”
She doesn’t look up again.
#jackson storm#cars 3#pixar cars#cars fandom#arab american storm#another headcanon i'll keep speaking from my grave#another fic where you write it and you think#ah yes#tumblr. i'll take my usual: a table for one#whipple words#asks
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